Minecraft: Story Mode - Lukesse Style!
by EclipseCat
Summary: Here is my take of MC:SM but with Lukesse happening through all episodes as it should of been. I will be re-writing all episodes across both seasons and adding a couple of new ones of my own. Won't let me set rating to Mplus. This is my first ever fanfiction, I hope I do you all proud. ;w;-b
1. Author's Note

_Hello there, this is E-Cat. o.o/_

 _I've never written any fanfiction before so please be gentle. ;w; I also h_ _ave trouble with words and spelling so bare with me, if there are any mistakes please point them out kindly! :3_

* * *

 _While I was playing MCSM, Lukesse became and immediate ship. I was then thinking what if the whole story took that into consideration?_

 _So here is my take on MCSM:Lukesse style! 3 I plan to re-write all the episodes and I'm probably going to add in extra scenes so it fits together better. There will be POV switching although it's mostly going to be Jesse and Lukas, and I may, when the game prompts you, mix in more than one option. You'll see as we go along!_

 _The first few_ _episodes aren't going to have heavy Lukesse, we gotta built up to that. Additionally I've rated this M because I plan to end up there but I want people, who don't like that sort of thing, to be made aware from the very beginning._

 _(Just so you know I'm using the first Jesse, black hair, red and white shirt.)_

 _Original story and characters by Telltale Games and Minecraft by Mojang of course!~  
_ _I own nothing except the crazy ideas in my head!_

* * *

 _ **Episode progress:**  
_ _(Episodes with * are purely by me and don't happen in the game at all.)_

 ** _Season one:  
_** _Complete - One, Two, Three, Four, Four and a half* (Will have the very end scene of four in it)  
_ _Five - in progress | Six | Seven | Eight_

 ** _Season two:  
_** _One | Two | Three | Four | Five_

 ** _Season E-Cat*:  
_** _One – Rough storyboard | Two -_

* * *

 ** _Section for updates:_**

07/01/2019  
I would like to extend my apologies for disappearing, over the past however many months I've been dealing with depression and terrible anxiety. It was at the point where I didn't leave the house for two months. I know, as you have probably guessed, am in control and hoping to get back into this soon. S1E5 wasn't far from being finished, but give me a chance to get back into the swing of it.  
I never forgot about this but just couldn't write. My health is and will always be the most important thing to me.

14/01/2019  
I have proofed the first episode for a second time, caught a few more wording/spelling issues and am starting to remember where I was going with what.


	2. S1E1: The Order of The Stone

**...**

 **Season One, Episode One:  
** **The Order of The Stone**

Jesse POV

"Would you rather fight, one hundred chicken sized zombies or ten zombie sized chickens?" Olivia, my brainy best friend, asks me while she was busy doing something with redstone behind me. "Just to be clear, you wouldn't have any armour or weapons"

We were in my treehouse waiting for Axel before we headed off to the Endercon building contest, we went together every year regardless of weather.

My treehouse wasn't massive but big enough for me and Reuben. It was two floors, with the bedroom and bathroom upstairs and everything else downstairs. There were two trap doors in the middle to the back and in front of that a seating area, to the left a small kitchen. I was at the far end by the stairs, practising my sword fighting against an armour stand I received as a present one year. I didn't actually have any amour so I thought I'd make use of it in some way or another. Reuben was busy batting at the bottom half of it, helping me take down this 'enemy.' Did I mention that Reuben was a pig? No? Well he is, and the best pig you'll ever meet, we were always together.

"I'd have to go with the giant chickens" I replied after some thought. "Not because I want to or because I think it would be easy, but because they would be an abomination."

"Can you imagine their feet?"

"Like I said, an abomination." Olivia seemed happy with my choice and went back to putting down some redstone. My poor treehouse had been the subject to many of Olivia's, erm, creations over the years we'd been friends. Reuben looked at her, then me and made a small grunting sound. I think he was concerned for his home, I knew the feeling.

"Soo... I've got a daylight sensor on the roof..." Olivia started. It was just over a mumble so I assumed she was talking to me, I made a sound of acknowledged back. "... And if I did this right, these lamps should turn on once it gets dark. I didn't just want to leave Reuben here with nothing while we're at the building competition."

"He's coming with us." I said without a pause.

"Really?" Olivia replied back to me, sounding surprised. I stopped beating on my armour stand, turned to her and sheathed my sword. Reuben stepped out from the stand and stood next to me.

"What kind of question is that? Of course he is!" My voiced was raised a tiny bit, I hadn't meant it to be.

"Okay, I'm not saying he shouldn't come, I'm not!... But don't you think it's a little weird that you take him everywhere you go?" Reuben put his head up and walked over to the window, jumping onto the ledge as if to say 'I am here you know, I can hear you!' Olivia continued, "He kind of makes us look like, I don't know, amateurs"

"Reuben's my best friend, my wing man!" I don't know why I felt the need to point that out, surely 'Liv knew that by now.

"I thought I was your best friend" Came a slightly sad reply. Surely she wasn't jealous of a pig? Albeit a brilliant pig but now I felt a little bad. How could I save this without making them both feel bad? Luckily Olivia continued, "I didn't mean anything by it, I'm glad he's coming, really. I just, don't want to give people another reason to call us losers." She turned away from me, averting her eyes and looking down ever so slightly.

"Who cares what other people think about us?"

"I know, it just wears you down after a while" 'Liv replied sadly with a sigh. I looked at her wearing her signature green beanie accompanied with her trusty goggles. Two little pearl stud earrings were just visible behind her dark hair, which was in it's normal pigtails framing her mocha coloured skin. White short sleeves clung to her shoulders while the long red body of the shirt hid the tops of her black trousers. She had her long dark boots on over the top of them and a bracelet on her left wrist. This was Olivia's weakness, she was so smart yet had no self confidence. I was always trying to bring that out in her.

There was a small hissing noise, we looked at each other and then towards the trap doors.

"You hear that too right?" I asked Olivia who replied with a nod. I started inching forward, hoping it wasn't what I thought it was, a Creeper. I didn't need a big hole blown into my house on Endercon day. As I moved my hand toward one of the trap doors, it flew open.

"BOO!"

We all screamed. Me falling backwards on my butt, 'Liv jumped out of her skin and Reuben fell off the window ledge, bumping into a chest on his way down. I looked up from my place on the floor.

"Hahahaha, oh man, you guys totally freaked out. That was aweso..." Reuben cut him off running into him with a head-butt, a well deserved head-butt, and an "Ow!" followed. The 'him' was Axel, he finished off our little group of misfits. Olivia had known Axel longer than me, after I moved into the town and became good friends with her she introduced me, the rest as they say is history. Right now as it was, Axel was standing, in all his massive size, taking off his Creeper mask and complaining. "Great, now I'm gonna smell like a pig at Endercon. I thought we were buddies." Axel was a very tall, large build of person with dark hair and dark eyes, a lot of people thought he was a griefer, which of course made him happy even though he was a big softy really. He wore his usually green long sleeve shirt in honour of Magnus I was sure. Black fingerless gloves, brown trousers and sandals, I never did understand why sandals. He was the oldest of our group at eighteen and Olivia was the youngest at sixteen, which placed me right in the middle.

"Axel, what's the matter with you?" Olivia asked, now fully recovered from the shock.

"You deserved that" I said crossing my arms.

"I bring you good times and now I'm being punished for it?"

"You scared us half to death!" I told him.

"Nothings fun if you're not scared half to death" he replied. I looked at 'liv who wore the same 'that's your idea of fun' expression?

She shock her head and asked "Did you bring the fireworks?"

"Of course I did. I even brought something for the little guy!" Axel exclaimed pulling out a black shape from his inventory, a couple of black shapes actually. He stuffed them onto Reuben and I got what it was supposed to be. He was an Ender Dragon well... Ender Pig. Reuben ran about the room excited.

"You brought Reuben a disguise?" Olivia questioned

"Err, we're going to a convention. Someone's got to wear a costume" Axel pointed out.

"He looks awesome! And if Reuben's happy then so am I" I told Axel. Said pig then jumped up onto low bookshelf and oinked loudly.

"It only took me like a million hours to build" Axel let us know. Slight exaggeration? I think so.

"All right all right." Reuben jumped down and gave Axel a leg nuzzle.

Olivia then spoke up, "You definitely brought the fireworks right?" She made her way over to the trap doors and opened one. Axel followed on over.

"Yes already! Just waiting on you guys"

Olivia turned to me as she made her way down, "See, now he's your wing man."

"Stop!" I said back to her. Bad joke!

"Hurry up and grab your stuff" Axel rushed us along.

"We'll meet you downstairs okay?" Olivia told me.

They had both gone down the ladders and I thought about what else we might need, or what I even had actually. I searched the chests and found a flint and steel and some shearers, might as well take them I thought, I already had my wooden sword on me. I saw Reuben stood patiently waiting for me. "Give me a dragon roar Reuben, let's hear you!" He let out a very loud squealing oink. "That'll do Reuben, that'll do" I gave him a pet and picked him up. "I think we have everything I'm going to find in here." I told him, making my way over to the trap doors. "Not like I have that much stuff anyway".

Olivia and Axel were stood waiting for us. Reuben jumped out of my arm when we reached the bottom, his little wings flapped as his did so making it looked like he glided. A little squee left my mouth at how cute it was and everyone looked at me, including Reuben, I coughed and scratched the back on my head, "Err, lets go shall we!" I walked off in front of them in an attempt to hide that moment and I think it worked.

"I heard a pretty juicy rumour about this years building competition" Axel pipped up. "But you guys have to promise to not tell anybody!"

"Okay, what is it?" Olivia questioned.

"Also, it's in two parts, each part more exciting than the last."

"Spit it out Axel!" I said.

"Part one, the special guest at this years Endercon is none other than Gabriel the warrior him-frigging,self!"

Me and Olivia goggled at him, "WHOA! What's part two?" I said back rather loudly.

"Part two, according to my sources the winners of the building competition's gonna get to meet him." He paused, me and Olivia in a happy shock. "If we win, oh man this would make up for all the losing"

"Meeting Gabriel would be a dream and an honour" I proclaimed. The Order of the Stone were Heroes, legends! Gabriel the Warrior, Ellegaard the Redstone Engineer, she was Olivia's idol. Magnus the Rogue, of whom was Axel's idol and finally Soren the Architect and leader of the Order. Together they had many tales and battles, their most famous was of course the Ender Dragon, which together they defeated. I, as you can tell, was a big fan. To be honest I didn't know a person who wasn't.

"Totally!" Olivia agreed. "It would be amazing to meet him!"

"Reuben better be careful in that costume" Axel spoke, "the last time Gabriel met a dragon it didn't end so well." I couldn't tell if he was being serious or not.

We we're all quiet for a moment just letting the news sink in, when Olivia started to speak "So, does this 'source' of yours make posters for a living?" She questioned looking about. I followed her line of sight and stopped. Stuck to just about every single tree, we were walking through a thinly wooded area by the way, were posters advertising Endercon. Some of which had the news that Axel had just told us.

"Yeah, my 'source' uhh, doesn't uh actually exist. You guys are my only friends" Axel said looking sheepish.

"Guys let's stay focused. We have a competition to win!" I announced.

"We never win, and this year we have Reuben with us" Olivia complained. What was she trying to say about Reuben!? "We basically have no chance."

"Faith Olivia." I comforted her.

"What?"

"A little slice, a sliver, a portion. Just a little faith, that's all we need" Olivia made a face at me. "I'm also hungry. TO WIN!"

"No no, I'm down with that" Axel agreed with me, glad he was on my side. He often was, I was sure Axel had stolen all of Olivia's positivity sometimes, because he had minecarts of it some days!

"All right" Olivia said back, finally giving in. I smiled at her.

"Wait a minuet wait a minuet! We're thinking about this all wrong. The point of the building competition isn't just to build something, it's to get noticed by the judges." I thought allowed to them.

"Okay, so how do we do this then?" Olivia questioned.

"We don't just build something functional, we build something fun!" I proclaimed. I think I had their attention. "After we finish the fireworks machine like we planned, we build something cool on top of it."

"You might be on to something." Olivia replied, liking the idea.

Axel crossed his arms, "if you want to get a reaction out of the judges you build something scary. I say we build a Creeper."

"Wouldn't an Enderman be better? I'm more scared of Endermen than Creepers" Olivia stated back.

I thought a moment while they talked between themselves. Endermen weren't so scary, as long as you didn't look at the anyway. And Axel did scare us with a Creeper today... "I think we should go with the Creeper. Fireworks and Creepers go together." I finally said, agreeing with Axel.

"Aw, you're going with Axel's idea?" Complained Olivia

"What's wrong with my idea?" Objected Axel

"Nothing, I guess." She paused and we walked on a little further. "You know, I think this is the first time that we've actually decided on something before getting to the competition. Think we've got everything we need?"

"It wouldn't hurt to grab a little more" I replied back, stopping. "We're so prepared, we can't lose. Cannot! Bring it in." I put my hand out in the middle of us, everyone followed suit including Reuben who stood on his hind legs to do so. "'Dare to prepare' on three, no 'preparing is daring', nope that's the same thing" What was the saying again? Everyone looked at me with a confused look to their eyes "Forget it, 'team' on three. One, Two, Three..."

"TEAM!"

We all raced off to collect, well to collect whatever we could: Wood, stone, sand, wool, flowers and squid for dye, Reuben even helped me with some warm up exercises. We were ready to build and ready to win!

"We know what we're building, we got all the stuff for it" Axel said with confidence.

"This year it's going to be different. I'm not just ready to build, I'm ready to win!" Olivia said with the same confidence as Axel. Hurray, I've finally got some out of her. That was until someone walked past us saying "nice pig, losers" and Olivia's smile faded.

I sighed. We still had this, fireworks weren't too easy to get a hold of, we had been fighting Creepers for weeks to collect the amount of gunpowder we needed. We'd even gone and found some more rare dyes to colour them with. I was confident that we not only had the skills to build but also a creative fun idea, I'd never seen a Creeper fireworks machine before, so I was sure no one else had.

"Oh great, there's Lukas and the Ocelots. The rivalry continues" said Axel from behind my right shoulder with a grump in his voice. They were stood in front of us at the team register counter.

"Man, they've got matching leather jackets and everything." Admired Olivia over my left. And I will admit, inside my head, that they did look cool with their black leather jackets with their Ocelot symbol on the back... We needed some sort of team thing. While I pondered, three of the four turned around and noticed us. Gill, with his dark hair and dark eyes. I didn't know much about him other than there wasn't much going on upstairs. Maya, with her light brown hair and eyes such a light blue they were nearly white, creepy. She was very rude and never had a nice word to say about anyone. The last of the three to look our way was Aiden, probably the most spiteful person you'll ever come across, dark brown hair and green eyes mocked us.

"Well well well, if it isn't the Order of the losers" called Aiden, leaning against the register stand. Gill laughed.

"Great, the fail squads here" joined Maya, snickering.

"Lukas, get a load of these losers" Gill called to their leader, of whom had finished registering them for the competition. He turned around, blond hair and blues eyes looked at us and then to his team.

"Let's go guys" And into the competition grounds they went, Aiden giving us a mean smile as he went

From all of our many encounters with the Ocelots, unlike the rest of them Lukas was never horrible to us, or well anyone. I think he kept them in check as well like just then, telling them to move on. I admired that, it wasn't always easy being a leader I thought as I looked to my sulking team. I sighed. "Come on guys" I ushered them over to the lady sitting at the register table.

"Name?" She asked us

"Axel, and how do you do?"

"No, your team name?" She replied looking a little perplexed.

"Team name?" Repeated Axel who then looked at me, "We are so not ready for this."

My brain ticked over so many words and things we could call ourselves. I looked over to see the Ocelots watching us and then Reuben oinked. I smirked, I had the perfect name in mind. "We're the Order of the Pig" I announced, placing one hand on my hip. I glanced back towards the Ocelots who laughed under their breath except for Lukas who smiled. Ha, I think he got it, even though I was kinda mocking his gang who liked to call us names. But I wasn't someone who let those sorts of things get to me, laugh in the face of bullies! Reuben then oinked in satisfied agreement with my choice.

"Really?" Dead-panned Olivia.

"Is that meant to tie us to Reuben, or are you making fun of me?" Axel then questioned. In what way was that making fun of you Axel? I thought, I didn't get it.

"Ok" Said the lady behind the desk. "Order of the... Pig. You guys are in booth five." Axel then went through the gate, or well, the correct way of saying this is he got stuck in the gate and we pushed him through, told you he was big. That was met with another laugh from the Ocelots who finally turned away and headed to where they were going to be building today.

Axel and Olivia headed right to our booth but I decided to have a quick look about first, see what we were up against and all that. Now I know for a fact the Ocelots, or well Lukas, was a great builder but I hadn't seen much but some of the other people here today. We were out in a grassy open, with trees about us and a lake off in the distance. The area was fenced off with fenced booths littering the borders, so people had a place to walk about in the middle. I greeted a few of the other teams, wishing them good luck, I even got chatting to one team who were doing something with lava, something safe I hoped. I waved them good bye and headed for our booth.

"Is that a beacon? They have a freakin' beacon. Freakin' beacon!?" Whispered Axel to us, he was looking over at the Ocelots who were in the booth next to us, I glanced over my shoulder trying to be sneaky and it was, they had a beacon. Wow, you have to get a Nether Star to make one of those, so they went to the Nether for this competition? That's commitment.

"That's stained glass. They aren't just building a beacon, they're building a rainbow beacon." Olivia stated. Of course she knew what it was before they'd even pulled out all their materials. "We're gonna lose".

"What're you saying? We got this." I said as a matter of fact.

"Who are we kidding, we got nothing"

"We've got... A mascot!" I knew that wasn't going to help much but I was thinking on my toes. Reuben then oinked as if he could win as our entry. I think he was forgetting he was a pig.

"We should probably stop staring at them" pointed out Olivia a little too late as Gill had noticed us looking.

"Hahaha, look, it's the order of the losers, again!"

Maya laughed "Good one, Gill"

Olivia huffed at her "We were just looking"

"Oh, there will be plenty of time to look at our build when it wins and gets shown at Endercon" called Aiden walking to the front of them.

"Well you're being unpleasant" replied Axel who crossed his arms in defence.

"Well maybe not all of you" continues Aiden ignoring Axel completely. "Endercon doesn't allow outside food or drink" He point at Reuben who oinked in shock.

I puffed up "Reuben is NOT food" I glared at him. No one says anything about my friends like that, no one. To me, my friends are my world and I will do anything and more for them. Just before he could reply, something sarcastic I imagine, Lukas called to them,

"Stop wasting your time Aiden, we've got work to do"

He didn't reply for a moment, turned to Lukas and then back to us, "you're lucky I'm busy" then sulked off. More like you're lucky I thought. I'd get him back for calling Reuben food. I myself was a proud no-pig-atarian, I ate nothing remotely pig related.

"Hey Jesse" called a familiarly female behind me.

"Hey Petra" I replied back as she came and stood next to me. I'd known Petra ever since I came to this town, she was a little older than me at nineteen and a bit mysterious but dependable, if you needed something, she could get it. I thought to myself, I bet that's how these guys got that Nether Star. She asked how our build was going.

"Only time will tell, but we're optimistic" answered Axel.

"Petra" called Lukas who came forward in his white and purple striped shirt, denim jeans, black and white trainers and of course, leather jacket with the Ocelot logo on the back. I think he was about Petra's age. "I forgot to thank you for that Nether Star". Called it. I smiled to myself, proud of my detective work.

"Hey Lukas, not a problem" Said Petra in her normal relaxed tone.

"You helped these tools?" came a shocked Axel. I gave him a look as if to say 'now who's the unpleasant one?'.

"For the right price, I'll help anyone" shrugged Petra "if you need anything, you know where to find me" she finished, her dark eyes turning to the forest and off she went, her red short hair coming from under her blue hat. Black and blue shirt covering her with only one sleeve down her left arm a black glove on the other hand of which was carrying a stone pickaxe over her shoulder. Dark blue shorts and shoes finished her.

"None of us know where to find you" pointed out Olivia.

"Exactly" and with that she was gone. We all stood there a moment in the silence watching the space she'd just disappeared into until Lukas turned to us and spoke.

"No hard feelings guys, and if you're cool with Petra you're cool with us" He put one hand behind his blond hair. I think he was unsure of where to look. "So why don't we just forget about all this and you know, make it about how cool our builds are?" Well this was unexpected, I didn't know Lukas well but I had always assumed that he was just like the rest of them, apparently I was very wrong. Aiden on the other hand just stood behind him glaring at us, I didn't think I was wrong about him.

"May the best team win!" I beamed back at him. I never wanted drama between anyone if I could help it, hopefully I could start patching up this gap, however it started.

"Be careful what you wish for" he smirked back at me.

"Ladies and Gentleman..." Came the voice of an announcer who was stood in the middle of the area on a platform. "welcome to this years Endercon building competition!" The crowd cheered. "This winners of this years building competition will have their build featured at Endercon. They will also win the chance to meet, in person, Gabriel the Warrior." Me and Olivia grabbed each other and jumped up and down, Axel threw his hands in the air.

"Ocelots!" we turned to look at the group who had moved over the their area, they were doing some sort of team handshake.

"Whoa, a handshake, we don't have a handshake" grumped Olivia.

"Then let's make one up. Right now!" I said. We came together and did something that can only be described as awful. I don't think any of us were going to remember that.

"And just like that, I'm nervous again" Olivia said to me with a shaky voice.

"Don't talk like that. We can do this! Just stick to the plan and everything will be fine" She took a deep breath in and looked at me with some confidence. If we lost now, it was going to be hard to talk her up next year. "This year, the Order of the Pig can't lose" They all nodded at me and we came together for a hug.

"Building starts..." Came the announcer once more, "NOW!"

We raced to start building, we each had a share of the things we needed. Me and Axel started building up the fireworks machine while Olivia worked on the redstone wiring. We were putting the dispensers in place when I sighed at a voice calling over to us.

"Oh no, a fireworks dispensers? I'm so scared" It was Aiden, I bet you guessed that. He was stood on some clay blocks being his usual irritating self.

"Hey" I called back over. "You worry about your build, we'll worry about ours"

I saw Lukas put his hand to his head and shake it, he then reach over and pulled on Aiden's sleeve. I couldn't quite make it out but I think he said something like stop it. Lukas saw me looking, I smiled at him and mouthed 'thank you', to which he smiled and nodded back. I turned to Olivia and asked if she had finished with the redstone, she had.

We all climbed our way down the machine and to the front where we got our green and black dyed wool out and started to build a Creeper shape. When we reached the top Olivia put a lever in place to start the machine. I looked about at the other builds. We had finished ours but a lot of people still looked as though they had so much to do and the lava one, what was going on there? I knew we had the skill and this sort of build suited all of us. Olivia and her great redstone brain, Axel just liked explosions and me, well I was happy building, just building. Reuben was running about on the floor in his costume, I saw people pointing and smiling at him. See, Jesse beings the fun! If people we're having a good time, then so was I!

"And now!" I boomed to the sky. "My Creeper, attack!" I pointed out towards the people and nothing happened. I whispered and nudged Olivia "That means go."

"Oh uh!" She pulled the lever and the Creeper went crazy, with tons of fireworks shooting into the sky, it was a shame it wasn't night but it did the trick. "Okay okay, I admit it. The Creeper was the way to go." Olivia said, receiving a 'told you' and a smug face from Axel. "This is great. We'll win this for sure" People came over as we were admiring the sky from atop the Creepers head. I even heard one guy shout 'Good build, man!' And of course that annoyed a certain Ocelot.

"What!? No way! It's just a bunch of dyed wool!" Aiden, who was now on the ground, looked up at us angrily. Our build was cool, and we were going to win of course, but he did have a beacon, come on, that was cool too. A piece of stone next to him then got the blunt side of his anger in the form of his fist. It poofed and left the cobblestone block which was burnt away by the lava now pouring out. Oh well done you idiot I though, I was about to call down and tell him to sort it out, that was until I notice that Reuben was on fire! Well his costume was, but being a pig with no thumbs he was stuck in it. He ran off into the forest.

"OH NO! REUBEN!" I all but screamed. My friends had witness what had happened, I told them to stay here, protect the build and the stop the lava, I was going after Reuben. I ran to the edge of the Creeper, grabbed it with one hand and slid my way down, doing a roll at the bottom so not to take damage, as I launched myself out of the roll I knocked Aiden over. I all but sprinted into the trees making a note that Aiden would get more than that later so help him if more than a hair was singed on Reuben.

* * *

Building Competition: Lukas POV

I was busy writing down all our names and talking to the register lady at the desk, my team around me, when I heard Aiden laugh and call "Well well well, if it isn't the Order of the losers" Gill and Maya laughed and she joined in calling them the fail squad. Gill then asked me to 'get a load of these losers'. I finished talking to the lady behind the desk and turned to see who they were insulting now.

It was Jesse and her group, she was stood in the front, arms folded not in the least bit intimated by Aiden. I inwardly smiled, protecting her friends, that's something anyone could admire. I had seen them around and knew that Jesse was a skilled builder and had heard that Olivia was it? Was a master at redstone. Wanting to avoid what I knew was going to be confrontation I ushered everyone inside.

I was hoping my leadership would change these guys into being less stand-offish towards everyone. The world wasn't against them unless they made it, and they did.

I looked over my shoulder to see the three of them watching Jesse's group. I decided to stay with them, in case they chose to carry on.

They were choosing a team name it looked like, Jesse was stood with one arm across her chest and the other playing with her lip. She looked up at us, her green eyes full of confidence behind her black hair that was pulled to one side in a yellow clip. She smirked something playful at us and then looked at her pet... Pig? Dragon? Wait what...?

"We're the Order of the Pig" She then exclaimed putting one hand on her hip, looking back over to us. The guys laughed not getting it but I smiled back at her. She was mocking them and the names they'd just been called, as if to say 'yeah and what about it?'

I headed towards our booth, number 6, and started sorting out all our building materials. I looked over my shoulder to pass Aiden all the stained glass we'd be using and saw Jesse, talking to the other teams and shaking their hands. Aiden nudged me "What're you staring off into The Nether for?" I nearly replied back saying that it was nice to see good teamsmanship but thought better of it.

I set our beacon off to one side, we had this. No way anyone could beat our rainbow beacon. I was thinking about the most practical yet compact way to place our redstone when I heard behind me

"Reuben is NOT food" I looked over to see Aiden standing up close to Jesse, who was standing her ground and glaring something evil at him. I sighed and called over to him telling him to stop wasting time, to which I received a glare but then he reluctantly agreed. Jesse watched him walk back to me, boring holes into his back with her eyes.

I hear Petra arrive and great Jesse like an old friend, they knew each other? I walked over to join them as I remembered I needed to personally thank Petra for the Nether Star.

"Petra, I forgot to thank you for that Nether Star". Jesse smiled to herself. Huh?

"Hey Lukas, not a problem" She replied back to me in her normal uncaring attitude. Getting a Nether Star? Just another day in the life of Petra I guess. Axel, Jesse ridiculously tall friend then asked Petra why she helped 'these tools'. Well ouch. Jesse then shot him a look and he backed down, I knew how she felt. Petra then exited the group doing what she does best and vanishing, I turned to Jesse's group

"No hard feelings guys, and if you're cool with Petra you're cool with us" I put one hand on the back of my head, I wanted to make cool with these guys, they had never done anything to us so I don't see why the other three had to be so mean to them. "So why don't we just forget about all this and you know, make it about how cool our builds are?"

Jesse tilted her head to one side slightly and all but shone at me. "May the best team win!"

"Be careful what you wish for" I smiled back at her. Then the announcer came out, telling us about the competition who some reason. When she said about Gabriel Jesse and Olivia started jumping about the place, it was cute to watch. I shock my head and me and my team went into our handshake.

And the building begun!

I was confident in our building ability but still nosed about at what the other teams were doing, and from what I could tell Jesse's group were building a fireworks machine, as Axel brought out arm fulls of fireworks my suspicions were confirmed. A lot of gunpowder was needed to make that many. Petra had asked about their build earlier which meant she didn't help them get any, one of them had to be a great fighter.

I was laying down some redstone when I heard Aiden shout over to them, Jesse told him to go away in an amount of words with more manners in them but he didn't listen. I visibly face-palmed and grabbed his jacket. "Get back to work. You wanna win right?" I saw Jesse looking over at me and she mouthed a 'thank you'. I nodded back to her and carried on wiring.

All of a sudden I heard a shout, everyone looked over in the direction of where it came from.

"AND NOW!" called Jesse from the top of a, Creeper? Oh I get it, Creepers explode, fireworks... Clever. I'd never seen people care about the looks of a firework machine before. "My Creeper, attack!" She pointed out and nothing happened. Then all of a sudden Olivia jumped into action and set off the fireworks. It's a shame it wasn't night but it worked, I could see why people liked it. I stopped admiring and carried on with our beacon when Jesse screamed "OH NO REUBEN", I looked up at her and then down where she was staring. Lava was pouring out, Aiden was stood next to it and her... Ender Pig? Was on fire. I was about to start moving when I noticed Jesse already had. She yelled to her friends exactly what to do, swiftly jumped from the top of the Creeper rolling at the bottom and knocking over Aiden, which I'm sure was on purpose. Then she ran into the forest.

* * *

Jesse POV

I ran as fast as I could following after what I hoped was the path Reuben had taken. I stopped to catch my breath by some pig tracks and called out to him. Nothing. Then I heard some pig-ish noises coming from in front. I jogged in the direction I heard the noises, I found no pigs but I did find some carrots, I collected them thinking I might be able to lure Reuben out with them, they were his favourite snack. "Reuben, I have carrots for you!"

Still nothing. I continued down the path I was going and came across a load of pigs. Reuben was such a small pig, it didn't look like he was here but I couldn't tell his oink from these other pigs. "All pigs but Reuben, shut up!" I said to them crossly. I received a snuff and they moved away from me, I let out a sigh.

I searched behind trees and grasses, only to be startled by a chicken, then I saw something behind some blocks of stone, it looked like, smoke? Reuben!? Running over I lifted up one of Reuben's dragon costume wings only to find no Reuben, but I was glad to not find him here right now. I stamped out his costume so it didn't set fire to the forest and stood up. Where could he be? It was starting to get dark which meant the monsters would start appearing, you didn't want to be out here then. I headed through a small cave, hoping he had taken shelter but he hadn't, coming out the other side I looked about, which is when I noticed something moving in the tall grasses. Taking out my wooden sword and inching forward, I parted the grass and a blob of pink looked up, shivering. "Reuben!"I exclaimed loudly and he launched himself at me. "Am I glad to see you!" I told him, putting him down and fishing about in my inventory I pulled out a carrot for him. "Here you go boy!"

I heard a groan and looked up, two zombies were emerging from a cave across from us. "Reuben, run!" We turned tail, back the way I came. Yes I had a sword but that didn't mean I'd charge right into a fight, I might need it more later. When I thought we'd lost them I stopped and crouched down to catch my breath, only to have a Creeper sneak up behind us, "AH!" Grabbing Reuben I dodged to the side just before it exploded. I ran over to a small hill, slid over a grass block and hid behind it, Reuben by my feet. "Did we lose him?" As I peaked over I heard something and an arrow just missed my head sticking into the wall behind, looking up I saw a skeleton getting ready to fire another. "Ahh! Go go!" I rolled right dodging the second arrow, Reuben was lucky he was small.

We ran but hit a down end, a stone wall too high to climb up quick enough, zombies were right behind us. Drawing my wooden sword I faced them "Stay behind me Reuben!" He sank back behind my giving me enough space, I hoped my sword lasted long enough for us to get away.

I swung at the first one, once, twice and knock him down, I stabbed him and he poofed. Two then came at me, I would have to fight them at the same time. Knocking one back I switched to the other and made sure to keep them at a distance from us, one went down, followed by the second. I knew how to build, but I knew how to fight more. That was until my sword broke, it poofed away. "No! Stupid wooden swords!" There were at least three more zombies from what I could see and then a spider came down from a tree. Reuben oinked at me as I backed up against the wall. "I know it's bad, don't worry I'll think of something"

"You're going to have to run. I'll distract them." Reuben looked at me, he didn't want to leave me. "GO! NOW!" He squealed so loudly at me and ran while the mobs focused on me. A spider jumped at me and knocked me down, I managed to punch it off. Standing back up, I panted, I had no idea what to do. Another spider jumped down from above me and started towards me and then it jumped at me just like the other one had. I started trying to hit it away but then it just wasn't on me any more. Sitting up I saw that Petra was here, she had dragged the spider off me and stabbed it with her pickaxe several times, it poofed away, dropping two strings.

"Come on, let's get out in the open." Petra said to me helping me up. Oh diamond blocks was I glad she showed up, I grabbed the strings as we ran passed. After a short while we came to a mined out cave which I guess was hers. "There's something I want to show you" Petra called up to me as I was making my way down a ladder. I followed her inside for a while

"Not that this isn't a really cool, dimly lit tunnel and all but, what is it you wanted to show me?"

"Careful Jesse, you don't want to get a reputation as a wimp." Petra teased.

"Ha ha, this isn't my first time in a cave you know?" Correcting her, I wasn't a wimp, and sulking to myself.

"Yeah, but have you ever seen..." She reached behind her into her inventory "A Wither skull?"

"Whoa!"

"Fresh from the Nether. You're the first person I've shown it too. Soo... You better appreciate this"

"That's insane Petra!" I exclaimed excitedly, that was impressive. "Why exactly do you need one?" I wasn't exactly sure what uses one had but it couldn't be many.

"There's this guy I'm meeting at Endercon - he's gonna trade me a diamond for it" Petra explained to me. I was sure that was worth more than a single diamond but Petra had agreed to it so she must of been happy with the deal.

"So this guy, what's his deal?"

"Well he's kinda strange, but hey, everyone's got their own thing" she shrugged. A diamond was still a diamond, even if a strange guy traded you it.

"Wow." I said to fill the silence.

"Wow, what!?"

"In a single day, you went to the Nether, killed a Wither skeleton..." I pointed at her "I mean I did build a super cool statue and all but wow, it's pretty sweet being you" after I finished I realised that could come across a little rude, but she seemed to ignore it.

"You know, you could come with me" She turned and kept walking. Petra the mysterious loner was asking me, me Jesse to come with her!? Wow I said to myself. "I mean if you're too nervous I totally get it, but I wouldn't mind a little... back up?"

"No no, I would be honoured to be your back up" I hurried next to her, and now I've gone from rude to creepy. Wow Jesse, well done.

"Starting to regret the decision now..."

"Sorry. I mean, I just..." I was acting like such an idiot, me and Petra were friends I was just so happy that she wanted to let me tag along. I saw a crafting table and thought it best to change topic, "you just keep a crafting table down here?"

"Comes in handy. Speaking of, your sword broke didn't it?" I nodded at her. "Why not make yourself a new one, there's some things in that chest." I opened up the chest and pulled out some cobblestone and sticks. Placing them on the crafting table I made a lever, I turned to Petra who gave me a confused look "That's not gonna do you much good in a fight is it?" We both laughed, placing the lever in my inventory I crafted my new stone sword.

I turned and gave it a swing. "Thanks loads Petra!"

"See, isn't it better when you make it yourself?" We carried on out the other side of the tunnel and into the cool night. We were on a giant bridge above a long and wide river, to my right Endercon, which was lit up with the Ocelots beacon. I guess we didn't win.

"Check it out, Endercons all lit up." Called Petra stopping on the bridge.

"Aw man, I guess this means Lukas and his Ocelots won again" I grumped and stuck a frown on my face. What was I going to say to Olivia and Axel? I was more sad for them than me.

"Sorry Jesse" Petra tried comforting me, "but you've got to admit, that beacon does look pretty sweet."

"Yeah yeah" I sighed "I just wanted THIS to be the year we finally beat those jerks"

"You know, Lukas may be kind of arrogant, but he has come through for me in sticky situations" I didn't think he was arrogant but I saw her point. "You might want to get to know him - just in case. He's good at building, that's for sure. It's always useful to have a guy like that around, no matter what you might think of him personally."

"Yeah, you might be right" I didn't have a problem with Lukas per se, it was the rest of them. But that only went for me, I didn't know what Axel and Olivia thought after all.

"I'm just saying, if you see him at Endercon, try talking to him"

"I don't need a lecture on the power of collaboration Petra." I said back at her.

"How about a lecture on the power of my fists, it's short, but deadly!" She retorted back at me with a serious face and I laughed walking past her.

"Come on, let's go"

"Remember what Endercon was like BEFORE it was cool?" She questioned me.

"Remember what WE were like before WE were cool?" I smiled sideways at her.

"Some of us, will never be cool" She joked back

"Har har!" I replied sarcastically. Then Petra stopped on the bridge I looked at her only to see she was staring ahead, I followed her line of sight. "Creepers!" And a whole bunch of them. We turned only to have the other end of the bridge blocked by zombies and spiders

"This... Doesn't look good" Petra said to me. "Well there's only one way off this bridge, whatever it is, we do it together."

We were back to back, I looked over my shoulder to her, "I say we jump!" We both ran to the edge and threw ourselves off just in time to miss two Creepers exploding. A third fell with us, behind me. Petra saw it and pointed, turning around I pushed it out of the way and into a group of chickens. Sorry chickens! It exploded, sending them and feathers everywhere. We came crashing into the water, Petra of course managing a lovely dive, me on the other hand? I just hit it. "It burns, it BURNS!"

"Don't you know? You dive into the water not land on top of it" She laughed at me as we swam to the shore.

* * *

We finally made it to Endercon, I was hoping Reuben was here somewhere, Petra saw me looking glum. "He'll be fine, I'm sure he's waiting for you around here somewhere"

"Thanks Petra... I hope so"

"So, when we make this deal, I need you to let me do all the talking. Okay?" She paused looking for the right words "I just don't want anything to screw this up"

"It's ok Petra, I'll keep quiet" I'd never done anything like this before so I was more than happy to keep quiet and let her show me how it's done.

"If you want to be really useful, try to look intimidating?"

"Erm, how's this?" I said putting on my best mean girl face and making myself look big.

"... I'm less scared of you then scared for you" I sagged, I wasn't used to looking mean and bodyguardy. I'd have to improvise when we got there and try my hardest for her.

"Jesse!" came a familiar voice, the owning of whom came running up to me, it was Axel, Olivia on his tail.

".. And, Petra?" She questioned. 'Liv knew we were friends but I don't think she knew we hung out, actually that had only just happened.

"Hey, you all know Petra, my new-super close friend. We're super close now" I said so cooly all it needed was a hair flick. Petra face palmed, oh. I shock my head ,"We ran into each other while I was looking for Reuben"

"Couldn't find him either huh?" Replied Axel

"I'm sorry Jesse, we looked everywhere" Olivia said softly. I can believe that, he wasn't easy to find.

"It's ok, I found him for a second but then I had to let him escape, we we're being attacked. I'm hoping he's around here somewhere."

"We'll keep our eyes open!" Olivia noted.

"What were you doing in the woods Petra?" Questioned Axel. Actually, that was a good question.

"Just, drawn by the sound of Jesse's high pitch screams." She joked and nudged me. I gave a small glare followed by a smile back.

"I would've been spider bait if she hadn't found me!" I didn't know what Petra was doing in those woods but it didn't matter, she saved me. I knew Olivia thought she was cool but Axel always took a while to warm up to new people. Hopefully they would get along.

Axel turned toward the Ocelots rainbow beacon which I had only know noticed was behind us. "Gotta admit, I'm pretty bummed they won, again"

"It's ok to be a little disappointed right?" Olivia asked me sadly.

"Only a little" I smiled back. "We'll get them next year, but you have to admit they deserved this win"

"Yeah ok" Olivia moped. I let her mope, I wanted to as well.

"The spirit is willing, but the flesh is sad" quoted Axel. I knew it was a quote, I couldn't remember from what but it fit.

"Hey" Petra joined in "If at first you don't succeed. Then succeed, later than... Originally planned?" I smiled at her, I liked that. "Hey Jesse, it's time to go and see about that thing."

"Oh yes, the 'thing'"

"Subtle" Olivia said

"Yeah?"

"Like a punch to the face" Oh, that was sarcasm. She shock her head, "Me and Axel were going to head into Endercon anyway, see you in there?"

"I heard there was free cake by the map booth" Axel suddenly remembered happily. He and Olivia walked off together into the crowd path ways and then Petra turned to me.

"Hurry, we're supposed to meet in that alley over there" She said pointing to a dark, creepy alley. Oh great and if this wasn't sketchy enough, now there's an alley way involved? We moved into it.

"Dark, dark, so very dark in here" I said to no one following behind Petra.

"That's odd, he said to meet by the dark creepy alley by the gates, but he's not here. Maybe he's late?"

"Are you sure THIS is the dark creepy alley he meant?" I crossed my arms over my chest sarcastically.

"I was..." Pondered Petra, raising an eyebrow. "Ok new plan, you stay here in case this is the spot he meant and I'll go look around"

"Okay I'll stay here, but something about this feel off to me" I told her.

"All of my secret deals feel off, that's why I keep them a secret" Petra replied back to me making a good point. "I'll be back before you know it, and if he shows up while I'm gone, just stall for me." And off she went out of the alley way, leaving me alone.

So I stood about a while when I noticed a chest and of course went to look in it. An unguarded chest in an alley way? Chh yeah I wasn't not going to look in it. Just as I was about to open the lid...

"Ahem!"

"Ahh!" I span around to see a man standing there in an olive coloured robe. At least I think it was, after all it was a very dark alley.

"And just who are YOU?" He sneaks up on me and asks who I am? What a strange man.

"Don't you know it's rude to sneak up on people?" I replied back, standing from the chest. He had dark eyes and long black hair and a beard. Along with his robe he was the exact sort of person you didn't want to meet in a dark creepy alley but that's exactly where we both were.

"I'm supposed to meet with Petra not whatever you're supposed to be." Didn't I know someone already who was this rude? "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't walk out of here right now?"

"I'm her partner"

"My deal is with her, not you. Do you have the skull?"

"Petra has it and she'll be back any minute now." I hoped. I didn't want to ruin her deal on the first time she invited me along.

"Well, as long as she's bringing it, I suppose it wouldn't kill me to wait a minute longer" He put his hands on his hips. I weakly smiled at him, hurry Petra.

"Ivor!" called Petra walking back into the alley, oh thank Notch because this was getting awkward. "Sorry I'm late, but good things are worth waiting for, right? I have what you asked for."

"IF you have what you promised us." I said crossing my arms and imagined that I was talking to Aiden.

"You never said anything about an us when we met" replied Ivor crossly. Ah shoot, I remember Petra told me to be quiet. I shot her a 'I'm sorry' look to which she rolled her eyes. "and I don't like surprises. If these are the sorts of people you associate with..." Hey! What's wrong with me? "Perhaps we should call the whole thing off?"

"My friend is fine, right Jesse? There's no problem here." Petra asked me. I looked to her and back to Ivor.

"I'm cool if he's cool."

"It's settled then, you're both cool" Petra decided, cooling things off between us with a smile.

"Proceed, then." Ivor said hurrying us along, to which Petra pulled the Wither skull from her inventory and handed it to Ivor, who took it and looked it over, he seemed very pleased with it.

"I'll take that diamond now"

"Take it, you've earned it" Ivor replied, gesturing towards the chest I was about to look in earlier. We both turned to look at it, Petra moving closer to open the lid while I looked over her shoulder.

"Uh, this isn't a diamond" I said unfolding my arms, oh no.

"No!" Petra said crossly "It's Lapis!" We turned to say something to Ivor but he was gone, of course he was. "Of all the dirty, underhanded tricks to pull!"

"Let's go after him! We can;t let him get away with this!" I told Petra. She turned and nodded at me and then we started running out of the alley.

"I'm either getting that diamond or I'm getting my skull back!" Proclaimed Petra as we ran.

"Or you'll make him pay, right? Right?"

We decided to split up to cover more ground in the hopes of finding him. I started by the entrance and man it was crowded, finding your way was hard enough let alone a person you'd only ever seen once in a dark alley. That was when a bunch of important looking people waked across with wait, Gabriel!? That was him and I wasn't the only person who noticed, suddenly people were flooding by, I fought my way through them, I'd already missed my chance to meet Gabriel, I had something important to do for my friend!

* * *

Lukas POV

I was stood leaning against one of the many stalls at Endercon. We'd won he building competition, no thanks to Aiden nearly setting everything on fire, but I knew we'd win. Jesse's friends were quick to stop the lava spreading and everyone worked together to put the fires it had started out.

There was a commotion to the right of me that caught me attention, was that Gabriel I saw? I knew I'd get my chance to meet him later, actually meet him. In person. I was so excited as I imagined anyone would be to meet him. So I didn't go and investigate to see if it was. That's when I saw a worried girl push herself out of the mess of people, it was Jesse. She brushed off her white and red sleeved shirt and denim overalls. That's when she saw me looking and smiled, she walked over in her brown boots.

"'Sup?" She asked.

"'Sup?"

"Nothing, 'sup with you?"

"Nothing, 'sup with YOU?"

"I just said, nothing..." Oh yeah she did. I'd never really spoken to her before so this was awkward. I wonder why she came over to talk to me? I took the opportunity;

"Sorry you guys didn't win this year" I told her honestly, rubbing the back on my head. "It might have turned out pretty cool, if you know, it hadn't burned down or whatever" Her eyes opened wider, "Ah you didn't know?" She sighed "Sorry"

"It's ok, really. You guys deserved that win" She smiled back at me.

"Wow, thanks for being so cool about it" I was a little taken back at her niceness. I guess I was expecting her to treat me badly because of how the rest of the group treated her, nice to know she didn't. "It's not fair you had to deal with Aiden being an idiot".

She smiled in agreement and then asked me a question. "You didn't happen to see a creepy guy with long hair and beard roaming around did you?" Why was someone like Jesse looking for someone who sounded so suspicious? Not that I really knew her but she didn't come across that way to me, definitely not now.

"I don't think so... Why?" I questioned. Wondering if she would actually tell me and she did!

"Well he kind of scammed me and Petra out of a diamond earlier." Said answered me crossly.

"Whoa! Everyone knows you don't mess with Petra, not if you know what's good for you." Petra let Jesse come along with her to her deals? I didn't know they were so close. I looked right at Jesse's green eyes that were looking at my blue ones, clearly this girl was full of surprises. "I'll keep an eye out, okay?" She beamed at me.

"Thank you! I really appreciate it."

"So, uh, we're cool?" I hoped so, I didn't know much about Jesse as I'd already mentioned but what I did know, I liked. Beings friends might be awkward but things have a way of working themselves out I thought.

"Yeah, we're cool" she replied back with an awkward smile, playing with her black hair, looking down ever so slightly

"Cool-cool"

"Cool beans"

"Cool-o-rama!"

"Ha! See you later Lukas!" She waved to me and she turned she left. I really didn't see why the others had to be so mean to everyone, nothing was wrong with Jesse. I just couldn't figure it out. I watch her walk away as I thought about it and that's when I saw Aiden pop out of no where at her.

"Well if it isn't team trashbag." I stayed where I was just watching, hopefully Aiden wouldn't start causing too much trouble. Jesse was trying to look over Aiden's shoulders but he kept moving in the way. "How's your stupid pig? I hear intense heat causes brain damage. It does boost the flavour something crazy though." He laughed and what came next shocked the both of us, me and Aiden. She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down eye level with her.

"I don't know when, but some day in the future, when you least expect it, I'll pay you back for hurting my friend." I couldn't see her face but Aiden was clearly taken back he stuttered out some noises. "Now move you idiot, I'm busy" She shoved him to one side and walked off at a speed looking for the guy she mentioned. I smirked at the confused look Aiden had on his face, 'it's your own fault' I thought to myself, he grumbled something to himself and sulked off, probably to bother someone else.

* * *

Jesse POV

So I'd spoken to Lukas like Petra had told me to and I was right, he wasn't like the others in the group, I was thinking to myself 'why would he hang around with such people?' when Aiden jumped out of thin air, catching me off guard.

"Well, if it isn't team trashbag" he said mocking me. I wasn't in the mood for you right now Aiden, not that I ever was. I looked past him and thought I saw Ivor, I tried moving around Aiden but he just moved, blocking my way. "How's your stupid pig?" He carried on talking but I was busy looking past him trying to see where Ivor was going, I caught Aiden saying something like heat and flavour and knew he was taunting me about Reuben, he laughed and I just grabbed him by the collar.

"I don't know when, but some day in the future, when you least expect it, I'll pay you back for hurting my friend." I stared right into him, our green eyes meeting, my glare was probably something evil because he didn't reply and just stuttered. I groaned. "Now move you idiot, I'm busy", I shoved him out the way hearing him complain behind me, ignoring him I carried on towards Ivor who had now stopped.

When I reached him I grabbed his shoulder and spun him around only to see it wasn't a him but a her... Whoops.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm sorry!"

"Get away from me!?"

"I said I was sorry!" It was an honest mistake but I couldn't really tell her I thought she was a man, what with her being so mad already. Shaking her head she turned back to the people she was with and I hurried off, spotting Axel by a stall. Save me!

"Haha, thought you could just wiggle right out of there didn't you, well..." Axel said to a chicken who was in some sort of machine.

Looking at it, it looked rather pointless. The chickens found they way to the top, trying to escape but then the combination of pressure plates and sticky pistons made them fall back down, only for them to start over. I gave Axel a sideways confused glance, what did he like so much about this? "Wiggle as much as you want, you're not going anywhere."

Shaking my head I spoke to him "Hey Axel, seen Reuben yet?"

"No not yet, I'm sorry Jesse, but he'll be okay, he's a tough little ham" he assured me. He was tough but that didn't mean I couldn't worry. I moved on,

"Any chance you've seen a creepy looking, beard-y guy anywhere?"

"No, but Petra told me what happened, I'm keeping an eye out" I gave him a quizzical look and put my hands on my hips, unless he was a chicken this was an odd sort of 'keeping an eye out'. "Okay I got a little distracted." He admitted. "Its just this machine presses all my buttons, unnecessarily complicated, mean to birds for no reason."

"Come on Axel, we could use you're help!" I pleaded with him.

"I'm looking, I just got distracted. Fine! I'll help" He told me looking back at the machine, "Right after I watch one more bird get owned." Sighing, I shock my head and walked off.

Right then I heard a panicked squealing, Reuben!?

"Get your pork chops here, fresh off the bone!" Wait, what!? No! "Nothing sticks to your ribs quite like a juicy pork chop" the butcher at the stall said reaching down and lifting up a small pig, it was Reuben!

"REUBEN!" I called running over as the butcher got out a stone axe.

"What's the big idea? I'm trying to run a business."

"That's MY PIG! You kidnapped my pig!" I was is disarray, don't you hurt him! Give him back!

"I found him wandering around by himself in the woods, I don't know what you're talking about! Not the fattest pig ever, but he should cook up real nice." Reuben was stood on the counter, shaking on his little trotters.

"That's my friend, give him back to me right now!" I glared back, slamming my hands down on the counter.

"You wouldn't be threatening me, would you?" he asked dryly.

"So what if I am?"

"I'm not interested in arguing with you, but... I might be amenable to some sort of trade?" He hinted at me. "Not that you look like you've got much of value on you" He scoffed at me crossing his arms, "I gotta get some kind of return on my investment."

Urgh this guy. I pulled out my stone sword and handed it to him "All I've got is this sword"

"Oh that's very nice, with this I could cut my butchering time in half" Yeah it's nice, crafted it myself. He looked at me and the sword, one hand on the scruff on his chin thinking. Hitting Reuben on his rump, the butcher pushed him off the table to me and grabbed the sword from my hand pocketing it, "nice doing business with you".

I bent down and scooped up Reuben, "Come on boy" He glared at me, angry I'd let him be capture by his worst fear! I held him tight trying to reassure him that I hadn't meant to. "Sorry I let you run off boy, I just wanted you to be safe" I received a piggy snort and that was that.

I thought I saw an olive robe out the corner of my eye, I put Reuben down and followed after but lost where it went. Instead I spotted Olivia and went over to inform her with what was going on. I knew she'd want in on this.

I tapped her on the shoulder and she turned to me "Remember that thing I had to do with Petra?" She nodded, "Well long story short, we met up with some guy and he cheated me and Petra on a deal, and now we're trying to track him down. You want in?"

"Oh I'm in all right" Olivia said crossing her arms and looking ready for business. That's when I heard Petra behind me, she was followed by Axel.

"Any sign of him?" She asked hopefully.

"I thought I saw him earlier, but it was just a false alarm" I rubbed my head awkwardly because it certainly was. I looked up towards the main hall where Gabriel would be later and wait, "There is he!" I said allowed pointing towards him. Ivor was right there sneaking into the hall.

"But we're going to have to get past that usher to get in." Petra pointed out walking over to him. "What would it take to get us in tonight?"

"Uhhh, tickets?" Came a reply followed by a laugh from the usher. This guy was one diamond short of a pickaxe.

"This might sound crazy" I tired, "but we're actually on a really important mission. Please!"

"I hope that mission came with tickets, 'cause otherwise..." The usher wasn't going to let us past, but I guess that was his job after all. We turned away regrouping and that was when a chicken flew past and the usher jumped away, "Chicken! Chicken! It's ok, it's gone, you're a cool dude!" he motivated himself wiping his forehead. My friends started talking while my brain started working.

"We have to do something" Petra said with a little desperation.

"Like what?" Asked Olivia, "this show has been sold out for ages"

"I could bust right through, I just need a little wind-up room" Axel offered and I looked at him and shock me head. No violence! That was when I noticed yet another chicken themed machine behind him, that must of been where that escapee came from, wait this is perfect!

"We need a distraction" I concluded, looking at the chicken machine. All three of them looked at me and then the machine. "What if I told you that I wanted to break this guys chicken machine to create the mother of all distractions! The usher is afraid of chickens"

"But you need to break that pane of glass." Olivia said pointing to the lowest middle one, "How are you going to reach it?"

"Look around, there has to be something we can do!" Petra said as she split up from us.

Right at the end of this part of Endercon I saw a guy jumping on some slime in a sort of demonstration, that would be perfect! Walking over to the booth I was hoping to get a free slime block when I noticed the person running the stand was the woman I'd wrongly grabbed earlier.

"Oh, hi again!" She looked crossly at me but waited for me to continue. "One slime block please!" The lady rolled her eyes at me,

"We don't give away slime blocks here, only slime balls. We have a limited supply so it's only two per customer. You could craft your own block with nine balls"

Well ink sacs. "I'm uh, really sorry about earlier" I told her, "I honestly thought that you were someone else."

"Apology accepted." Her face didn't match her words though. But I was glad I was able to meet her again and apologize anyway.

"A round of slime balls for everyone!" called Axel from behind me.

"Wait this is only eight balls" I noticed telling everyone, "we need one more to make a block!"

"Okay, we need to find a way to get more slime and quick!" Petra told us and we split up again.

One more, one more. I didn't think there were any other slime stalls and she wouldn't give any to Reuben because well, he's a pig he can't craft. I was thinking to myself, one arm crossed over my chest the other playing with my bottom lip when I looked up and saw Lukas standing against a stall. Petra was right.

"Hey, uh, Lukas. Can you do me a favour?" I asked nervously and hopefully. I was cool with him and he was cool with me, so maybe...

His blue eyes looked in my direction, "Anything's possible"

"I need smile balls, I swear I have a really good explanation..." I pleaded with him. Explanation yes, good one, well. I needed them to break a chicken machine which was an odd thing to say to someone really. I fidgeted which is when the others came over and Lukas looked at them, catching on to the fact that we were up to something.

"Whatever you guys are doing, count me in" He smiled and handed me a smile ball from his inventory. I thanked him, smiling back.

"Thanks Lukas!" Petra came on behind me and whispered, "told you he was useful." I gave her an eye rolls.

"Aw man, this guy isn't actually cool, is he?" sulked Axel.

"Remains to be seen" joined Olivia crossing her arms. I shock my head and went over to a near by crafting table to turn these balls into a block. Lukas, to my surprise, tried talking to my friends,

"So you guys been crafting together long? You've got good chemistry"

"You jealous?" Axel replied instead of answering he's question.

"I'm just saying, I think it's cool you have a team that works so well together." Lukas tried again.

"You're totally jealous!" I didn't think he was jealous, the Ocelots worked well together, Lukas was just trying to be nice Axel. I'd finished the block and walked past Axel giving him a nudge as if to say 'knock it off'. He puppy-eyed me and Olivia stole the block from me.

"I'll take this and put it right... Here" She had placed it between the the stall and the chicken machine.

"It's all you Jesse." Axel said smiling at me.

I pointed to the stall roof, "Gimme a boost" to which he did and I clambered up. Looking about I saw that everyone was too busy enjoying themselves to notice us and a me on a stall roof. I lined myself up with the block and the glass, I hoped this slime gave me a big enough jump boost otherwise I was going to be in pain and trouble... And also look pretty silly. You got this Jesse.

Running forward a few steps I pushed myself off the end of the roof and landed on the slime, it didn't give me any time to think and flung me off the other side towards to glass. In a split second I'd got my fist ready and punched through the glass. Success!

I fell to the ground and gave myself a fist pump as chickens began escaping everywhere.

"My poultry, my precious poultry!" Said the machine's owner, currently trying to gather his chickens but our plan had worked and the usher was panicking.

I looked at my group who all wore matching smiles and we ran into the hall, the usher saw us but then he got owned by a chicken.

* * *

"Where'd he go?" Questioned Petra once we were inside. The room was big with a scattering of people putting the final touches to tonight's main show. There were a few doors with people coming in and out of then but then I noticed a lone door on the other side, it was slightly ajar and not a single person next to it.

"Over there?" I answered, pointing to said door.

"What do we do once we catch him?" Came another question, this one from Lukas. "I mean, there are a million ways to play this. But considering this isn't my fight, I'll follow your lead."

I looked at Petra, nodding I replied to Lukas "Whatever we have to"

He was a little taken back "Wow, you're way more intense then I gave you credit for Jesse."

"Ha! Maybe just a little pay back then?" I tried, toning down a bit. That seemed to work as he nodded at me.

"He deserves it for crossing Petra!" We all made noises of agreement and creeped through the door and down the stairs.

The stairs ended in a tiny room with some iron blocks stacked on top of each other in a T shape and there was an opening to the left, we all lined up against the wall as I peered around, I couldn't see anything other than bookcases, so many bookcases, and potions littering the tops. The room was dimly light and didn't look particular inhabited. Petra's head came just under mine as she tried to get a look, with one hand on my other side to steady herself. I was a little taller than her, but not by a lot. Olivia's then popped under hers with Reuben below her, 'Liv was definitely the shortest of the group. Lukas's hand then appeared on my shoulder and he looked over my head, he was a good couple inches taller than me. And what was I? A leaning post? Axel didn't need to peek over anyone's head as he just won the who's tallest competition hands down.

"Anything?" I whispered

"He must of gone out another way" Petra complained. But this at least looked like the sort of place a creepy beard-y guy would hang out and do whatever creepy beard-y guys do besides scamming my friend. We all broke apart and scanned the place.

"What is all this?" Olivia said to no one in-particular.

"Looks like it used to be a basement" I thought out loud.

"I bet you anything, we'll find my Wither skull down here" Petra said determined.

Axel had hopped down the stairs and was looking around happily. "And if we find anything else cool to steal, along the way, then so be it, right?"

"Axel," warned Petra, "that's not what we're here to do."

"Axel, no stealing." I said agreeing with Petra. "Just find that skull."

"Aww, you guys never let me have any fun" He sulked.

"We let you hang out with us" I gave him a cheeky nudge and smile to which is shock his head and plodded off behind a maze of bookshelves. "The faster we find what we're looking for the faster we can get the heck out of here"

We split up about the room, looking in the few chests that were about, behind books, on tops of shelves. This guy had a lot of stuff down here.

"Oh hello" Petra said as I was walking towards her, she pulled out a gold sword and gave it a couple swings. "eh, too heavy, and too soft"

"It's super flashy though" I said smiling.

"Yeah, something tells me that this guy doesn't do much fighting" She paused. "You still have that one stone sword right?"

Ahh... I looked at her sheepishly and sighed, "Nah, I had to trade it to some jerkward butcher to save Reuben's life."

"Jeez, oh well, I guess that was a pretty good cause. Here" She handed me the gold sword. "Now that's two you owe me" giving me a cunning smile.

"Thanks Petra, again!"

"Don't lose that one!" She warned me.

I carried on forward and came to a slightly more opened part. Axel, who was on my right, was muttering to himself and pointing at things he wanted to steal. Reuben was by Olivia who was stood on a ledge looking over books and Lukas was to my left doing the same thing and rooting about in a chest. Something shiny caught my eye, it was some sort of fancy potion, I walked to get a closer inspection.

"You're not going to believe me" Axel said, turning to notice me looking at the potion, "but I swear I had a dream about this." He was right, I didn't believe him. "Okay potion, you're coming home with me"

"Come on Axel, make yourself useful and go find that skull"

"I am looking" He complained as he swiped the potion in his hand.

"Nope, nope. You're literally doing the exact opposite of what I just asked you to do." I grumped at him crossly putting my hands on my hips. I gestured to the now empty spot. "No way he won't notice his fancy potion is missing."

"A good thief always covers his tracks" Axel beamed, looking around he grabbed a different, much less fancy potion and put it where the other one was. "Fixed it" He seemed happy with himself and walked off.

"Oh yeah, the perfect crime" I sighed crossing my arms over my chest. I looked up to notice Lukas watching me with amusement. I rolled my eyes and gave him a smile shrugging, I bet he knew exactly what it was like to not be listened to by your friends.

I looked towards where Axel had stolen the replacement none fancy potion and saw something sticking out from the wall, there was a lever hiding behind the potions. Walking over I pulled it and the book cases in front of Olivia started descending. I had a feeling there would be a secret room down here, call it a hunch about dark creepy basements, but assume there is a secret room. Everyone gathered around.

"What is all this stuff?" Olivia asked?

"Soul sand." Petra answered. "It was everywhere in the Nether." It wasn't so much a room but a space that had Soul Sand in a T shape, with a weird block in the middle and a chest below it.

"What about the block in the middle?" I said, voicing what was on everyone's minds.

"I've never seen one of these before..." Olivia mumbled as she stood back on the ledge to get a closer look. "It's shining and, do you feel that? It's like, it's like it's pulsing."

"Whatever it is, let's not touch it." I called to Olivia who turned to me, nodding in agreement. "What's in this chest?" Remembering it existed. I crouched down and opened it up. "Sooo, good news, weird news" Everyone came up behind me to look in the chest.

"What the hell?" Petra said crossly and with confusion, "why I'd risk my neck for that skull when he's got two of them already? He was in such a hurry too. There's got to be something bigger going on here."

"Well these were all HIDDEN behind these bookcases..." I thought allowed agreeing with her.

"I think I know what's going on here" Lukas chimed in. "Soul Sand, plus three Wither skulls. That's the recipe for a Wither!"

"But, a Wither, that's..." Petra sounded as shocked as I felt.

"One of the worst monsters there is" finished Lukas.

"Well, we came down here to find the skull annnnnnd we found it." I said looking from Lukas back to the chest of skulls.

"We should just grab it and get out of here, while we still ca..." Petra was cut off by the sound of a door shutting. Oh no.

"Uh, guys..." Lukas whispered.

"Scatter!" Petra told us. Reuben nosed the lever again to close the bookcases and we all ran to find hiding spaces. I had no idea where anyone else was. Peering over the top of a bookcase I was crouching behind I saw Ivor come into the room, I held my breath. Even though there were six of us he did posses everything to make a Wither, that was worth not jumping him over.

"'Don't you recognize me', or... wait 'surprised to see me'" came Ivor's voice loudly as he walked through the room, what was he doing? "No, that's not good...'Thought you were rid of me, didn't you?' That's better." I was watching what he was doing when I heard something like glass hit the floor, someone had knocked over one of his potions and Ivor had noticed it as well. "Who's there?" he called out to the room, turning back the way he came and moving closer to the sound. Think fast Jesse,

"Hello, Ivor!" I said confidently appearing from my hiding place and moving towards him. He turned, shocked.

"What are you doing here? What did you see?" The guys had started coming out from their hiding places and moved to join me. Turns out it was Olivia who knocked the potion over. "You two!" Ivor exclaimed to me and Petra "Did you follow me here?"

"You thought you could just screw us over and get away with it, didn't you?" Came Petra, her voice had some malice behind it.

"We're here to prove you wrong!" I said to him

"What are you doing to go about it?" Ivor replied making a point.

"We know what you're doing down here. Soul sand and three Wither skulls, you're building a Wither." I said probably a bit too smugly.

Ivor was taken back a bit, clearly shocked with the news that we knew what he was doing. "Humpf, smarter than you look." He finally said.

"Hey, nobody talks to my friends like that, now shut your mouth, or else!" Axel warned him, folding his arms and getting up close, Ivor ignored him.

"Enough! You've wasted too much of my time already!" Ivor exclaimed and ran out of the room, we all followed after him but he'd just disappeared.

"Where'd he go?" Petra asked to the room.

"If you won't leave of your own volition," Ivor said to us, appearing behind the iron blocks, "I'll happily remove you myself" He pulled out a pumpkin and put it on top of the iron blocks... Oh no. It poofed into an Iron Golem who stood up tall. "Show our friends the door, will you?"

The Golem swung at us and we all dodged to the sides, it was now stood between us and the only exit out. I saw Olivia and Axel make a dash for it as it was looking at me and Petra, Reuben was to my side looking so tiny in comparison. I dodged under it's arm which was swinging at me and leapt for Reuben, bundling him in my arms and rushing for the door. I heard the Iron Golem roar metallic-ly behind us.

"Oh man, this is so exciting..." Called a lady announcer on the stage. Apparently the main show was beginning. "And now, ladies and gentlemen, for the first time ever, here at Endercon, we are very proud to present..."

"The one, the only..." A man stood next to her continued.

"GABRIEL!" They shouted together and parted the stage, the crowd went crazy. I couldn't believe it I just stared, mouth open, there he was, Gabriel, one of the four members of the Order of the Stone, who I idolized, wearing his signature dark and light blue armour and helmet.

"Are. You. With. Me!?" He boomed out to the crowd, who all cheered out various replies.

"Everybody ok?" I said finding myself and asking my friends.

"Um, guys... Where's Lukas?" Olivia asked looking around us.

"I thought he was right behind me" I told her, rubbing my head.

"Well if he's not here," Axel said, "the only place he could be is..." We all turned to look at the basement door. I had to go back and help him.

"Ivor's got an Iron Golem and all the ingredients to make a Wither down there" Petra called up summarizing our predicament. "If he were to unleash it in this crowd of people... We have to act fast!" There was alarm in her voice and rightly so.

"Well it just so happens that the greatest warrior of all time is in this building" Olivia said matter of factly. "We have to get him to help somehow."

"I'm going after Lukas myself" I told them and they all looked at me in shock. "You guys try and get Gabriel to help us. Do whatever you can!" I turned to leave back down to the basement but Petra grabbed my arm.

"Are you sure?" Concerning over me.

"Yeah. Just get Gabriel." Me and Reuben were already heading towards the basement door before I'd finished that sentence. I could hear the Golem but not see him, I made my way down the stairs silently and peeked into the room, nothing. I snuck along the bookcases trying to keep as small as possible.

"Lukas?" I whispered. I couldn't really call for him or the Golem would hear me, or Ivor. Where was he come to think of it? I tried again, "Lukas? Can you hear me?"

"Jesse?" Where did that come from? "Is that you whispering super loudly?" I looked in the direction I heard Lukas and saw him peeking out from inside a chest on the far side of the open area, I waved at him to confirm I saw him but he looked shocked and then hid back in the chest. What? Then I heard a noise behind me, it was the Golem

"Ah!" I backed up, as it took a swing at me Lukas's voiced called out

"Hey!" and then he hid back in the chest. The Golem looked over to him and I took the chance he'd given me and hid behind a bookcase. A confused Golem wandered into the open area having nothing to do now. I peered around the corner of the bookcase, my eyes meeting blue ones peaking from the chest.

"Run!" I mouthed

"Run where?" He whispered back, "Don't you think I tried that already?" Okay okay, I'm trying here.

I saw a potion on the top of a bookcase in front of me, I sunk down and crept forward, keeping out of site of the Golem and grabbed it, ducking back down as it turned around, Lukas hid back in the chest. I waited until I heard it walk away from me and threw the potion, hitting the wall in front of it, the noise grabbed the Golem's attention and it headed over to investigate. "Now!" I whispered and Lukas jumped out of the chest, ran passed the Golem. One check to make sure the Golem didn't see us but it spotted me and moved over taking a swing, that was when Reuben jumped out from behind it and oinked loudly. The Golem turned to see what was happening and I dodged under it's arm, grabbing Reuben in one arm, I ran to Lukas and grabbed his sleeve pulling him along.

We made it back up the stairs without problem.

"Thanks for coming back for me." He said to me, "I didn't know if anyone was going to"

"Don't be silly, of course" I replied to him with a smile and we left through the door. I saw my friends trying to grab Gabriel's attention.

"What are you not understanding?" Came an Axel sounding exasperated. "Do you want me to tell you charade style?"

"I can assure you," Gabriel answered, "that's the last thing that I want you to do."

"Six words, eight syllables. Sounds like, 'there's a shmunster in the shamasment'" Oh dear, why did Petra and Olivia let Axel do the talking?

"I have a question for you!" That sounded like... Ivor. Where did he come from?

"Excuse me sir, you'll have to wait your turn." Gabriel called to him.

"Just answer me this first" continued Ivor, "do you really believe anyone can be great?"

"With enough hard work, yes" Gabriel answered honestly.

"Was that where I went wrong? I simply didn't work hard enough?" Ivor said angrily up at Gabriel as he pushed his way to the front finally showing himself.

"Ivor!?" Gabriel exclaimed, shocked. "Is that really you?" Wait wait, they knew each other?

"That's the guy who attacked us!" I looked up and told Gabriel, "how do YOU know him?"

"I don't think I ever REALLY knew him" Gabriel answered me in a sort of not really way, "but what I knew, I didn't like."

"The feeling is entirely mutual" Ivor agreed making his way onto the stage with Gabriel. "Why don't you tell them the real story, Gabriel?" Asked Ivor. What real story? I was utterly lost now, what was going on?

"I see time has made you bitter Ivor."

"And I see that it's made you an even bigger fool! Now these people were promised greatness," Ivor turned and announced the crowd, "and I'm here to deliver." He turned to the back of a stage and stood next to a lever, "I'm sorry this is how they had to learn the truth."

"Oh no, Gabriel stop him!" I shout up but it was too late. Ivor threw down the lever and out from the back of the stage rose a nearly complete Wither, with only the middle head missing.

"Nothing built can last for ever, Gabriel!" Ivor said to him as he placed the final skull on the middle block.

"Ivor, NO!" Gabriel tried, but it was far too late, the Wither poofed into life with the strange middle block at it's centre, it's completion knocked both Ivor and Gabriel off the stage into the front of the crowd, it rose higher and made a weird cry/roar noise.

"Creature! Attack!" Called Ivor to his Wither. I don't think he needed to tell it that. It fired fire balls at us and the crowd scattered, running to get out any way they could. I dodged one, two fire balls, making sure Reuben was protected at all times. Blocks started floating up around us and were sucked in by the Wither. It roared.

"Everyone stay calm!" called Gabriel, drawing his diamond sword and standing impressively in front of it. "This foul beast is no match for me!" He jumped towards it making a swing but it did nothing and knocked him back. I didn't know what to be more surprised about, the fact that Gabriel was just knocked down fighting the Wither or that Gabriel was right here, fighting a Wither. It was a like a horrible dream, not a nightmare, a horrible, very real, dream. "Ivor what have you done?" he called getting up from the floor. I ran to him.

"Gabriel!"

"No, stay away" He put a hand out to stop me. "It's after me, not you!" The creature flew at us both, we dodged and it threw another fire ball towards the ceiling.

"Look at him, the mighty Gabriel." Exclaimed Ivor to the panicking room, "it looks like true greatness is out of his reach." he said smugly. "He might not be able to defeat this creature, but I can!" Ivor turned to stand in front of it, "Creature, retreat!" It did nothing and the Wither carried on sucking up blocks and blowing up the room. "Ahem, Creature, retreat!" Ivor tried again, the Wither turning to him, the middle head had changed, it had one big purple eye and a mouth full of teeth, it was no longer a tiny little skull. "Retreat I said, retreat!"

"Uh, that's not working" I shouted over the noise of the Wither.

"Errr, no need to be alarmed my friends." I don't recall becoming friends with Ivor... "I have an elixir that will destroy this creature." He reached into his inventory and pulled out, oh no, it was the replacement non fancy potion, the real one Axel had. I looked to Axel as Ivor threw the potion against the funny block in the centre of the Wither, it did nothing. "What!? Impossible! It should of worked, I took such care." Ivor looked confused for a moment and then panic came over him.

"The potion!" Olivia said to Axel, "you've got to throw the real potion!"

"But, finders keepers!" Axel complained back to her. Oh my gosh he wasn't serious was he? There was a very real very angry Wither and what he stole would, hopefully, stop it and he was being selfish.

"You thieves!" Ivor shouted at us, catching on to what Axel had done, "you're ruining everything!"

"Axel, come on!" Olivia said again as he took out the potion from his inventory and looked at it sadly. I grabbed it and took aim, it hit the middle block perfectly, or it would have if the Wither hadn't covered it up.

"It's protecting itself!" Ivor said, pointing out the obvious. "Without the Command Block exposed the potion is useless! It wasn't suppose to happen like this!" Ivor then turned and ran away, friggin' RAN. AWAY! Now what were we supposed to do? We couldn't leave this thing here destroying and killing.

"Ivor!" Called Gabriel after him, "You coward! Come back here!" Yeah I don't think he wasn't going to listen to that. That was when a purple beam came from the Wither highlighting Gabriel and lifting him up. "Ahh!"

Olivia grabbed his leg and I rushed to help her pull him out. We landed on the floor in a heap, the others rushing to help us to our feet.

"Thank you!" He said to us, "Ivor was right about one thing, I can't defeat this thing. Not on my own. Everyone's running away, except for you." He turned to me, seriousness in his dark eyes. "Will you help me? I must get to the temple, but what needs to happen next, I can't do alone."

"Of course we'll help you!" I answered for everyone. The Wither was getting bigger with every passing moment, it couldn't be allowed to carry on. Gabriel nodded at my answer and told us to follow him. We left the, well what was left of the hall and ran outside.

* * *

People were screaming and running in all direction, I turned as the Wither burst through the roof, it was gaining size and fast, a giant mass of blackness with three giant black heads, each with a purple eye and many teeth. Purple beams were sucking up people while parts of Endercon were breaking apart and moving towards the Wither. As I ran forward a beam caught me, I called out for help but my friends were no where and people were too busy saving their own lives. I grabbed at some stone blocks slowly breaking away and pulled myself along, I flung myself off and out the beam just as the stones finally came loose. My body hit hard stone and rolled down stairs, I clambered up and ran, the wind knocked out of me.

As I jumped over a group of chickens I saw Lukas run in front of me, I called out to him and he stopped and ran over.

"Oh my gosh. If you hadn't come back for me, I... I'd still be..." I took his hand, this was no time to freak out about that.

"It's ok, you're here now, we need to move!" I started pulling on him.

"Thanks Jesse" He told me as I heard Petra call out to us.

"Jesse! Lukas!" She was hidding under a stall with the others, me and Lukas ran over and ducked under. I was about to ask what we should do next when the stall broke apart and started lifting into the air. We all scattered.

"Wait wait, we have to stay together!" I was going to chase after them until Petra called out to me again, she was caught in a beam. Running to her I grabbed her hand and attached myself to a fence post with the other. The beam slowly lifting me up. "Can't, hold, on!" We both screamed as the fence post broke and we starting to rise, that was until Gabriel grabbed my leg and pulled us both down, we landed with a thud. I was going to be so bruised and battered after this.

We caught up with the others and I asked if we had everyone, a quick head count confirmed that we did. "We must set out to my fortress!" Gabriel explained and led the way, we all rushed after him.

"Thanks for that just now." Petra said running next to me.

"Yeah well, now we're eve..." She jumped into me, pushing me out of the way of a fireball I hadn't even heard let alone seen. We all ran for the gates of Endercon dodging debris and purple beams. Fire and explosions. The gate started to close but I made it by doing a barrel roll under it. I huffed getting to my feet, continuing with the running.

Gabriel told us to all stay together and I agreed but looking ahead that might be easier said then done. Just about everything was on fire, people were everywhere; running, injured, being beamed up. Fireball explosions made it hard to see where to go and created massive holes in the ground. It was also dark, night time, mobs were scattering the forest picking people off or trying to run themselves.

A mass of trees in front of us were on fire, we split up and I followed Reuben to the left, jumping over a line of fire. Gabriel shouted that his temple was just ahead, I was glad to hear that he wasn't staying far from Endercon. I looked left and a giant black tentacle arm slammed into the floor, another coming down on the right over my head, I dodged. Then the one on the left moved towards me and I rolled under it. A third landed with a loud thud in front of me, I leapt over it and followed my friends into a building ahead.

"The inner chamber is build entirely out of obsidian. We should be untouchable in there." Gabriel explained to us moving towards a lever. I checked about, everyone was here; Olivia, Axel, Reuben, Petra and Lukas. We all stood completely out of breath, until a purple beam found it's way in, not stopping to welcome it to Gabriel's temple we ran into the now open chamber of obsidian.

Gabriel draw his sword and turned to face a tentacle that was trying to find us, "hurry, if you can get through the portal, you'll be safe." There was the framing of a Nether portal at the end of the chamber, Axel run through it,

"Uh, something's not right here..." He simply came out the other side, of course, the portal wasn't lit. I took my flint and steel from my inventory that I'd had since that morning, crouched down and struck the portal. Purple swirls formed inside in obsidian frame. It looked ominous. Petra told everyone to go, and go now. Axel picked up Reuben and dove in, followed by Olivia, I was about to follow when I heard Gabriel cry out. The tentacle had grabbed him, turning I ran, dodging another that burst through the ceiling and grabbed him, pulling him free.

Petra had taken up to fighting the tentacle behind us while this one grabbed a person and left, the purple beam sucking up another. "There's so many of them, I can't, I can't save them all!" Gabriel said defeated. "I can't stop this by myself, we need to find the others."

"Others?" I questioned him.

"Sorens been missing for years, but the others, you must seek them out. Take this amulet and guard it with your life!" He pulled from his inventory and handed to me a gold and black ring, from each gold part came a colour; blue, white, red and green, then in the centre ,encased in a smaller gold ring was purple. I took it, goggling at it.

"How am I supposed to find Magnus and Ellegaard?"

"The amulet will guide you" He vaguely explained standing up. "Take it through the portal and then..." He didn't get to finish as another tentacle decided it hated the roof, he pushed me out the way and told me to go. I turned, pulling out my gold sword with my free hand and tried to bat away the tentacle that Petra was fighting, Lukas who was stood by the portal, screamed. The tentacle nearly knocked me out but I dove to the floor in time and scrambled back up.

"You two; go through the portal and meet up with the others. I'll stay here and do what I can to help." Petra ordered.

"I'm not leaving you here!" I pleaded with her.

"I'm not asking Jesse, if anything happens I'll meet you guys at the temple, now go." She pulled my sleeve and shoved me toward Lukas and the portal. It was then that a beam caught Gabriel, Petra ran to help only to be caught in another. No no no no. I ran over to them dodging the tentacle.

"LUKAS!?" I shouted, I couldn't save them both where was he? Fear had him frozen by the portal, I turned back and reached for Petra she was closer, I pulled her free and we got up to help Gabriel, that was until the tentacle slammed into me shoving me backwards with such a force that I knocked right into Lukas and we both flew through the portal, whether we wanted to or not.

* * *

After a moment of blackness and whirling noises we came out the other side. I was completely winded and lying on Lukas who sat up and helped me to my feet. I coughed a sorry and a thank you then averted my eyes sheepishly.

"Where's Petra?" Axel's voice said.

"We did everything we could" Lukas answered back.

"What are you saying?" He asked back quietly

"Jesse, what is he saying?" Olivia asked me nervously. I know Lukas froze up but I wasn't about to admit that.

"It was chaos, there wasn't much I could do!" I answered them both and we were quiet for a moment but my brain still working in overdrive, everything had happened so fast. No less than a few hours ago we were all building at the competition and being mocked by Aiden. Now the five of us were stood in the Nether and a giant Wither, if that's what it still was, was tearing our world apart. That was when Lukas sighed and spoke up,

"I got scared." He admitted, "Just for a moment."

"You got scared?" Axel repeated moving towards him

"It wasn't my fault" Lukas replied, stepping backwards. Axel was a big guy, I didn't blame him.

"You got scared and it wasn't your fault?" He repeated again. To my shock, Olivia defended Lukas.

"Back off, Axel." To which he did.

"We have to go back" Axel said, heading towards the portal again.

"No!" Olivia said standing in front of it, "We just have to wait, think about what you're walking into."

"Well I'm going back!" Lukas and Olivia looked at me in shock. "I'm not letting my friend die. Not if I can do anything about it." I warned her trying to move her out of the way.

Olivia protested, "She just needs more time, please Jesse!"

"Hey, look!" Lukas called over our arguing and pointed at the portal which had started whirling. We all watched it with baited breath.

"Come on, come on!" I said to the portal begging it to give me Petra. The portal responded by spitting someone out, but it wasn't Petra...

"IVOR!?"

"You again?" He said to the five of us. That was when a tentacle reached through the portal, scaring us all. We all leapt out of the way, dodging it. It gave up wiggling at us and wrapped itself around the portal, crushing it into pieces and disappearing.

For a moment we all just stared at where the portal was, panic coming over us that now we were stuck in the Nether with nothing, no tools or building supplies. I had my gold sword but that wasn't going to help us, not here.

"You ruined everything!" Ivor said breaking our silence. "Don't pretend you don't know, thief. You took my most valuable potion!" My friends had all gathered about me.

I walked towards him, stood there and then punched him in the shoulder. "This is YOUR fault, you created that monster, not us!" Ok, we DID take his fancy potion but what if that didn't work like it was supposed to anyway? Don't go creating monsters, period.

"There's nothing left up there" He told us, "Nothing but that Wither Storm."

"Why are we wasting time talking to this jerk? We have to go and get Petra!" Axel pointed out.

"The girl. I saw her" Ivor let us know, "While I was running towards the portal I passed her, she was running in the opposite direction! Such bravery! Of course, there is a fine line between bravery and stupidity!"

"Petra is going to make it." How dare he call her stupid and assume she wasn't going to survive. This way Petra we were talking about and I was confident that I would see her again. "I won't give up on her!"

"Aww, you're concerned about your friend!" He jested and moved on, "Through that tunnel is a system of minecarts built by the Order of the Stone" He nodded his head behind him. "It's your only way out."

"We should go that way." Axel reluctantly said.

"Times wasting, let's go" Lukas joined.

"And how are you getting out?" I asked Ivor, he wasn't going to use the minecarts by the sound of it so did he have a secret easier way out?

"I'll use my imagination." He answered me. I was about to question him further when a groaning noise came from somewhere. We all looked about. "I would wish you good luck, but luck won't carry you through the Nether. You have my sympathies." Ivor pulled out a potion from his inventory and drank it, vanishing, the empty bottle landing on the ground. The noise sounded again and we turned to see what I assumed, never seeing one before, was a Ghast. A big white face with lots of little tentacles came floating over groaning and hissing at us, it opened it's red eyes at us.

"Let's not stick about." I concluded and turned, running towards the minecarts. The Ghast followed on after us until we came to a set of minecarts all parked up neatly.

"This must be what Ivor was talking about" Olivia said. The Ghast fired a ball of fire at us and we all dodged to the sides then ran for the carts; Reuben at the front with an empty cart in front of him, then me, an empty cart, Olivia, Lukas and Axel was at the back. Off we went.

We we're travelling along a thin minecart track above the biggest lava lake you can imagine. Groups of Netherrack formed little islands, some hovering above us with yet more lava pouring down, fires were burning all around. If someone asked me to describe the Nether is three words, those would be: Dangerous, Red and Lava. A tunnel was ahead of us.

"Wow, the Nether." Lukas awed about the place.

"Yeah..." Came Olivia is just as much awe. "That's a LOT of lava. And fire. And other stuff that could burn you to death."

Reuben oinked and hid down in his cart. "Oh, that's a drop. That is very, very much a drop." Lukas said loudly, ahead of us was very much a long drop down.

"What are you talking about, new guy? What drooo, oh crap, you weren't kidding!" Axel finally far enough forward to notice it. As we reached the end I threw my hands in the air and gave a WOOOO!

The drop shot us forward at a speed and through a tunnel. I heard Lukas shout duck as we approached a low hanging section, it was only just big enough for the carts to get under, we all passed it but it was followed by another.

"Okay, so, I'm not the only one seeing that we're running out of track, right?" Axel asked us, he wasn't. There was a lava curtain spanning the whole width of the tunnel.

"JESSE! That switch!" Olivia shouted pointed to a lever coming up on my right.

Leaning down over the side slightly, "Oh arm, don't fail me now!", I just caught it. The carts stopped right in front of the lava curtain, and started moving downwards by the power of a load of pistons. "ha, wow. Oh, I thought something bad was going to happen there, but heh, I guess everything's going to be..." I didn't get to finish that sentence and the carts had finished their descent and started moving forwards again, only to break apart from each other, sending us in a different directions.

I was on my own little thin track. I tried calling out to everyone but got no replies. Oh please everyone be ok, I thought to myself, that was when I heard a panicked squeal, "Reuben!?" I looked to my right to see him behind a broken, crumbling wall, a skeleton in the empty cart in front of him trying to shoot an arrow at him but Reuben dodged. Thankfully our tracks came along side each other and I got my gold sword out, standing up in the cart. I hit to skeleton but he still stood, so I swung at him with more force and he feel into the lava. Reuben gave me a happy oink and jumped into the empty cart behind me. "Okay, remember when I said everything was going to be just fine before? I know I was wrong THEN but now, I have a very good feeling this time... Whoa!" And life came to prove me wrong, again. A Ghast flew out over us and followed on behind, two of it's friends appeared and joined, the first one shot a fireball and I told Reuben to duck as I did the same, the fireball bounced off my sword and back at the Ghast. I stared at my gold sword and thanked it for existing. Reuben was hiding in the cart as I stood to face all three Ghasts each time hitting the fireballs back until they all died. I sheathed my sword and sat down, "well Ghasts are officially crossed off my to see list. Done with the Ghasts, never need to see them... Oh crap!" As we rounded a bend another was waiting and shot a fireball at us, it hit Reuben's cart who jumped forward into mine, and then we hit a big climb with no track at the end "This is bad, this is bad, this is BAD!" We launched off the end, in front of the Ghast, we landed with a massive thud and hit the back of everyone else in their minecarts, they all turned to look at me saying nothing. Lukas was right in front then Olivia and Axel up taking the lead. "Is, ha... Everyone okay?" I asked to break the silence.

"I mean, I'm not dead, guess that's pretty good" Said Axel turning back around.

"Ditto. Ditto with the not dead." Olivia added also turning back around.

"I just can't believe that Petra comes down here all the time. This place is awful!" Lukas said with a shaky voice and I had to agree with him, what was worth coming down here for? Lukas laughed "Your throats gonna be sore later, Axel"

"Why?"

"I'm just saying, wasn't that you doing all that screaming just then? Sounded like you were really shredding your larynx."

"Oh yeah, I heard that too" Olivia joined Lukas in mocking Axel, "really high-pitched? Kind of like a squeaky piston?" She giggled at him. I joined in with them laughing.

"What? No, shut up!"

We reached what looked like a centre meeting point, I guessed a kind of station for all of the different minetracks. As we made our way up the stairs and to the top I asked to nobody in-particular "Can you like, throw up, inside of your body?" I held my stomach because I was sure that's what was going on, today had been a rough day.

"uh-huh" Olivia confirmed, "I know because I just did, like five times." She paused as we reached the top and stood about looking perplexed. "All the tracks seem to converge at this point, you can probably get to anywhere in the world from here!"

"This is what Gabriel was talking about" Lukas thought out loud in front of a portal. Axel made to move into it.

"This must lead to the surface." Obviously Olivia, I thought.

"Yeah but, the surface is also where that creature is!" Lukas pointed out to her and Axel froze.

"He's right" I agreed looking from Lukas to Axel, "we have no idea what we're walking into." We all stood in silence and Axel turned back to the portal sheepishly.

"Thanks for being so brave, Axel" Lukas cheered to him.

"All right, I'm gonna go, I'm going, I'm going right now" He wasn't going.

"I'll go first!" I said pushing in front of him.

"That's not what I was saying... But if you absolutely insist."

I did insist and I stepped through the portal and... Out into a pool of water in a cave and the cool night. "O... Kay. Not what I was expecting." I heard a zombie and turned to see one on my left, I took out my sword and made quick work of it, the portal then whirled and an Axel came out of it. "There, was a zombie!"

"Oh." He dead panned. "Is it dead? I mean, you know dead-dead?"

"Yeah" We made our way from the pool as Olivia and Lukas made their way out of the portal and followed us.

"Where are we?" She asked as if I was a map.

"In the middle of nowhere" I summarized, looking about, trees everywhere. "At night."

"Maybe we should bed down for the night? It's dangerous to be out when it's this dark" Came a good idea from Lukas.

"I thought we were heading for a temple?" Questioned Axel.

"We're looking for a giant building, it should be pretty obvious" Olivia retorted back making a good point.

"Well Ivor said..." Lukas started but didn't get to finished as Axel decided this was a good time to start being rude.

"Ohhhhh 'Ivor said', well maybe this is the temple?"

"Axel, come on." Olivia said

"Yeah cut it out." I agreed with her, "we have to build a shelter!" I crossed my arms over my chest.

"I thought that was what I said, but uhh...?" Lukas said awkwardly.

"You're right, we should hurry" Olivia said to him. "I say we build a treehouse"

"That'll take forever and we'll be exposed while we do it. We just need a quick and dirty hut." Axel objected her.

"Well whatever it is, we gotta do it fast!" Came another good point from Lukas, but the two of them just stared at him. "What?"

"In a hut," Olivia started ignoring Lukas's question. "we won't know what's coming until it's knocking on our door." That was a good point, it's why I chose to live in a treehouse.

"Let's build a treehouse!" I said running out of patients with them.

"It's functional, it'll keep us out of danger", chimed Olivia happily.

"It's not a bad idea." Lukas agreed.

We set about gathering what we needed as fast as we could, Lukas even went back into the Nether to get some Netherrack so we could build an endless fire, Netherrack never stopped being on fire once you started one, it had it's uses, and then we built up our treehouse.

Starting at the base we built the trunk and added some ladders, a floor with the Netherrack in the middle and built up the sides a little, we didn't add a roof, we were all far too tired and just wanted to sit down after the day we'd just experienced.

"If I wake up with a spider on my face, I'm gonna expect you to deal with it" Axel said looking at me.

"Lower your expectations Axel" Olivia said starting the climb up, followed by the grumbling Axel.

"Well, maybe if we built into the tree a bit more, it could of... Nevermind" Lukas sighed and I pat him on the back, giving him a reassuring smile.

"It looks good" I received a weak one back and he climbed up, gathering up Reuben I followed on up.

The fire burned with me, Reuben and Olivia sat around it, Axel was pacing around and Lukas was sat to the back wearing a sad expression, I bet he was thinking about his team. I had my friends, well most of them, I couldn't imagine how he felt. I was about to get up and sit with him when Axel suddenly sounded pleased with himself.

"Oh man!?"

"What?" Both me and Olivia asked at the same time.

"I'm going to tell you guys something, but you have to promise not to freak out."

"What is it?" I gave him a curious look.

"I, have cookies" he pulled out a few and beamed at us all. I just blinked at him, was that all? I was expecting a lot more from the way he made that sound

"One for me, one for Olivia, one for Reuben and... One for you Jesse!" He said handing me one. Reuben looked at his and gave it a sniff, had he had a cookie before? I honestly couldn't remember.

"Sorry Lukas, I only have four" Axel said, and to me it sounded planned.

"Oh, no, it's ok. I'm not that hungry anyway." he replied from his corner. Nope, not happening. I got up from the fire, handed Lukas my cookie and sat myself down next to him. "Thanks, Jesse." He looked happy to know someone was on his side as he ate the cookie, I looked to Reuben who was still unsure at what it even was, I smiled at his confused face.

"That was for you Jesse, not him" Axel complained to me, he crossed his arms, I sighed and ignored him. Olivia looked at Axel being grumpy and then over to us sat in the corner.

"If you had to, which would you rather fight, one hundred chicken sized zombies, or ten zombie sized chickens?" She asked Lukas trying to help the atmosphere.

"Heh, choose wisely." I joined nudging him.

"Ahaha, that's a good one, let me think."

"How can you guys joke at a time like this?" Axel pipped up yet again. "Petra, is still out there. She's all by herself." Way to bring the mood back down.

"We can't just mope, we gotta keep our spirits high Axel!" I tried.

"No, we should be moping. That's exactly what we should be doing."

"Axel!" Warned Olivia.

"She's going to be fine Axel... She has to be." I said sadly bringing my legs and hugging them. Lukas put a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

"We should get some rest, we gotta start looking for this temple as early as we can. Now my guess, is if we start at the portal and sorta split up..."

"Whoa whoa what are you doing?" Came Axel yet again, who walked over to where we were sat, Lukas stood up to challenge him.

"Did I do something to you? I'd really like to know. Because you seem to keep getting on my case for what seems like no reason." He'd finally had enough of Axel giving him a hard time. I sighed I knew it was coming.

"Lukas is just trying to help Axel" I called up from my spot on the wood rather weakly.

"See?"

"I'm sorry Jeese. I'm not going to sit here and listen to this guy telling us what to do."

"I'm just trying to get ready for tomorrow." Lukas pointed out to Axel.

"You're the only one wearing that stupid jacket, don't tell us what to do"

"Take. That. Back." Axel had apparently crossed a Lukas line.

"Can't. Wouldn't"

"You know what, I get to wear this jacket because I know how to build, but that doesn't mean I don't know how to break stuff!" Lukas warned Axel.

"Your threats don't scare me now that we know how you really are" He was referring to when Lukas was scared over the Wither Storm and to be fair, I think that was a normal reaction to having the biggest, worst monster in the world sucking up everything and trying to kill you.

"Jesse!" Lukas called to me, "Your friend is way out of line! I wasn't going to bring it up, but I can only take so much!"

I stood up fast from my place on the ground and shouted "Let's just drop it!"

"Aw, come on Jesse, don't be like that." Axel said to me.

"Just. Drop. It." I glared at him. I was not about to pick sides and I was exhausted from not just trying to stay alive from various monsters and things that burned, but also from these silly little digs. Lukas was trying to make good here and Axel was doing everything to stop him. I knew he wasn't quick to warm up to people but geez!

"Haven't you done enough damage for one day?" Axel continued, not dropping it and getting into Lukas's personal space. "Petra might be dead because of you."

"Axel, you're taking this too far." Olivia finally joined, standing up from the ground, trying to pull Axel away.

"I don't have to take this." Lukas said to Axel. "Listen, why don't I just leave and you guys can hash this out."

"You can't leave it's dangerous out there" Olivia squeaked, Axel slunk off against the other side of the treehouse.

"I can take care of myself", what, against Wither Storms? Oh no. "It's what Axel wants, right?"

"Let him leave if he wants to leave."

As Lukas made for the ladder I grabbed his arm, "you're not going anywhere"

"But Jesse.." Objected Axel.

"Enough! We're all on the same team now, he's staying. End of discussion." I turned Lukas around and pushed him back away from the ladder. He gave in and sat by the fire with Olivia and Reuben, who I then sat down next to. Axel was still stood in the corner having a personal protest and we were all silent for a while until Lukas spoke up,

"Zombie-Sized chickens. That's what I would fight."

"Heh, I picked that one too." I smiled at him.

"And why is that?" Asked Olivia.

"'cause I'm starving." He answered weakly. Ah, that would be great. None of us had really eaten since either Endercon or before that. We would have to find some food before heading off in the morning. I still had a carrot in my inventory for Reuben, I fished it out and gave it to him, petting him. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding, he always helped calm me down. Then down came the rain...

"Of course." sulked Olivia.

"Rain is better than monsters." Lukas concluded, he was sat in front of me with Reuben between us, I was sat mostly facing him as I was petting Reuben who had all but inhaled his carrot. "Thanks for keeping me around Jesse" He said quietly, so not to let Olivia and Axel hear.

I leant down and hugged my legs again, looking up at him "'s'alright" I gave him a smile to let him know that regardless of Axel, I still liked him, and at some point I feel asleep, his face the last thing I saw that day.

* * *

Lukas POV

Morning came and with it our next challenge, finding the temple. We found food before setting off, cooking it by the fire, then left our makeshift camp and headed out. Axel walked passed me with a not so 'good morning' face, sighing I stopped. He went ahead to join Olivia.

To my surprise Jesse stopped next to me and asked if everything was all right.

"It was... A rough night." I told her, although that was probably obvious.

"Hey, it happens." She tried comforting me in a soft voice, "we were all tired after running for our lives yesterday... I'm just glad you're okay now?"

"I guess I am... Thanks for being so cool about it."

"Cool beans!" She grinned back, making me laugh remembering our slightly awkward conversation at Endercon. "Axel will get over it."

"I dunno, the way it all went down, it wasn't cool..." I admitted. I let the stress of the day get to me and forgot that we weren't exactly friends, well not all of us I hoped, and that the Ocelots weren't exactly nice to Jesse's gang. She shrugged.

"He used to be like that with me."

"What!?" I found that hard to believe.

"Mhm, when I first moved here, I bumped into Olivia and we became immediate friends but Axel, he took a while to warm up to me. Just give it time, he'll get over himself." She paused and grabbed my arm, pulling me along with her to catch up with the others. Jesse laughed, "Just trust me, everything will be okay!" I just let myself be dragged along a bit taken back by her niceness. I felt a little bad, all these years of not knowing her and letting the guys push them around, but Jesse just dusted herself off and carried on... I wish I had that outlook on life, and how she still found the strength to do that now was beyond me. Something this bad happens and most people just freak out, but not her, she just said 'okay' and got down with what needed to be done.

I shock my head and noticed that the others had all wandered off a little ways looking for this temple, seeing a hill next to me I decided to climb it in hopes of getting a better view, and it worked. Just in front of us, behind some trees was some sort of stone building poking out, it wasn't really that far from the portal.

"Hey! There's something over that way!" I shout down to them, they all looked at me and then in the direction that I was pointing. Climbing back down, I joined them in moving towards it.

There was a flat face of dirt and stone with vines hanging down, it didn't look like there were any stairs so we set about climbing it to reach what was hopefully the temple. Jesse asked Olivia if she needed a hand but got waved off with a 'pshh', she laughed and picked up Reuben under one arm and climbed up with the other. I stood blinking at her, then followed on up.

At the top we all stood about having a good look at what was left of this 'temple'.

"Think this is it?" Axel asked the question we were all thinking.

"Well, that's what we're trying to figure out." Olivia pointed out to Axel. None of us really knew what we were looking for and Gabriel didn't have much of a chance to draw us maps and pictures or he probably would of come with us.

I noticed the stained glass on the front in a coloured circle sort of pattern. "It's the temple of the Order of the Stone. It has to be!" I pointed at the glass shape and Jesse took out the amulet, holding it up. They matched.

"He's right, look!"

"Holy crap!" Again, Axel saying what we were all thinking.

So we'd met Gabriel, sort of fought with him and then he gave us a mission to find the others starting from their actual temple... If it wasn't for the fact we were here because of a Wither Storm destroying the world, this would've been the best day ever.

"If you spot anything, call it out!" Jesse said leading the way inside with Reuben a tad bit in front, he was a tough little ham I thought.

"Isn't it weird," Axel thought out loud, "that dispensers are carved to look like spooky little faces?" He really thought some odd things. We were in a corridor with plenty of dispensers on either side of us. "What do you dispense little guy?"

"III... get the feeling that we don't really want to find ou..." Olivia said nervously, stopping at the end because we all heard a strange noise. Spiders? No. What was that? Jesse slowly inched forward until the noise happened again and Reuben took off. He activated something as a gate slammed down behind us causing us all to jump and the dispensers to start clicking.

"Aww, come on dispenser faces, I thought we were friends." Axel said to one next to him.

Jesse called to us to run pulling Olivia forward and shoving her along, I followed behind. The dispensers started spitting out so, so many arrows, me and Olivia we already half way and made it without a problem. Axel somehow got lucky and didn't get a single hit considering how big of a target he was. Jesse rolled under an arrow, grabbed Reuben up, jumped then slid under another and joined us in a safe spot in between sets or arrows. Well damn.

"We activated the dispensers with that pressure plate. If we can figure out a way to hit it again, I bet that'll turn them off." I said to the group pointing to the far end where there were two pressure plates on the floor. Oh, now we see them.

"There's a crafting table" Jesse pointed out. Wow, how convenient. "We could make something."

"Out of what? We don't have anything. All of our tools and materials are back home" Olivia made a good point, I know I didn't have anything more than some wood sticks from last nights build.

"All right everyone, empty your pockets!" and we all handed Jesse what we had. Olivia had a piece of flint and a piece of string, Axel had some feathers. Wow, we really didn't have anything.

But Jesse took everything, went to the crafting table and made a set of four arrows. I thought okay but those are useless without a bow, that was until she crafted one . I guess she had some string on her. Taking aim for the pressure plate at the far end, Jesse had to miss all of the coming arrows to hit the plate to shut them off and she only had four shots to do it in, but to my amazement she only needed the one, landing a prefect shot first time and shutting them off.

"The Order of the Pigs luck is changing!" Axel announced as we continued coming to the end of the corridor and a sort of room covered in bookcases and an enchantment table. "Doesn't this look like Ivor creepy basement?" I agreed with him, it did, a lot! We all split up and looked around the place for anything that could be useful.

Jesse started reading from an open book on the enchanting table, "The battle was fierce, but the Order of the Stone emerged triumphant, saving the land and ensuring that peace and prosperity would reign forever..."

"Well, not exactly 'forever'" I interrupted her standing behind to listen. She continued,

"These five members, five friends. Would give so much to gain their rightful place as five heros." Five? That wasn't how the legend went. Jesse turned to me, looking as confused as I'm sure I did, which is when Olivia spoke up next to us, she'd come over to listen to apparently.

"Ivor was a member of the Order of the Stone!?" It made sense, "The stories never mentioned him."

"This might explain why Ivor had such a grudge against Gabriel..." Jesse pondered putting a hand to her mouth thinking.

"They lied to us!" Exclaimed a cross Olivia, "they lied to the whole world!"

"Why would they do this?" Axel said behind us all, "Man, I can't believe you punched a member of the Order of the Stone."

"heh."

"This is so crazy!" I said to the enchantment table. I mean, they were still the Order of the Stone, but what if there were more lies? How could they fake their legend cutting a whole member out like this? No wonder Ivor was mad, I would be too, not so mad as to create a Wither Storm, but I got where he was coming from, kinda.

"The Order might not be what we thought they were, but Petra is still out there! That monster is still out there!"

"Jesse's right. We need to focus on what we came here to do!" I said trying to move us along. We needed to find what members we could.

"Where do these stairs go?" Came a quiet Olivia form the other side of the room. There were indeed stairs. We all looked at each other and then Jesse headed right on up.

We came the top the and into a large empty room with barely any roof, one of the walls was practically not there anymore, which Axel said out loud,

"What happened to the wall?"

"More like what happened to this whole place!" Jesse said throwing her arms out gesturing to the building.

"This must of been where they met!" Olivia assumed.

"Well, where are they then?" Axel asked us as if we knew.

"Gabriel said that once we we're here the amulet would show us where to go..." Jesse said pulling it out of her inventory and holding it up, we all watched and... Nothing happened.

"Well that was a let down." Axel grumped and went to look at the map.

There was a giant map in front of the stairs which had to have most of our world mapped out and an altar type thing was then in front of that.

I sat down on some stairs right in front of the map and looked around some more. There were actual gold blocks forming columns in here and quartz helped make the place more temple-y, or well it would of if the rest of it was still together and there weren't vines and moss everywhere. I took out a book I'd brought with me from downstairs, Jesse came over and asked about it,

"Find anything useful in that book?"

"The only thing I've found so far is that the amulet was used to track the positions of the members of the Order"

"Does it say how?"

"Weellll, it's less technical and more historical." She sighed and let me continue reading to checked on Reuben, after which she went to speak to Olivia who was poking around at the altar.

I think Jesse was expecting her to have figured out something but instead Olivia looked up perplexed and said "We're in the temple of the Order of the Stone, the ACTUAL temple! Who'd of thought it, a bunch of small town outsiders like us wrapped up in a big adventure like this." I really wasn't the only one thinking that then.

"Yeah, it's pretty insane. I just hope we all make it out the other side in one piece." Olivia nodded and Jesse stared at the altar. It had a picture of the amulet so she placed said amulet in the gap at the top, nothing happened. She gave it a puzzled look and continued moving about the room. After a while a noise sounded behind me and we all looked up to see that either side of the map were stain glass blocks, the top three were lit up; Purple, white, blue, red and green. Then the white and blue turned off and the bottom two turned on? Huh?

Looking back to the room I saw Jesse stood at the other side behind a short stone row with a redstone lantern on top of it in the middle, she had an arm crossed over her and the other was to her mouth, talking to herself. Leaning down she must of pressed something as the lights switched again.

I thought to myself that we must have to get all the lights on and I was about to go over when she pressed something else and they did, in fact, all turn on.

A beam shot out from the redstone lamp, into the amulet which then split into a red beam and green beam and hit the map. Everyone looked at Jesse who stood proudly with a smug face and came back to us.

"It's absolutely incredible! How did they build this?" I'd like to know that as well, not everything about the Order might be true but they're crafting skills clearly were.

"This must be the tracking system your book says about Lukas!" Jesse exclaimed to me.

"But we don't know enough about how this thing works." I said to everyone, "Maybe the amulet only works when they're on the surface? It might not work when they're in the Nether. We have to go off what we DO know."

Jesse nodded at me, "It's trying to tell us something though, there are only two lights on that map, only two members left? Gabriel said that Soren was missing..."

"That leaves Magnus and Ellegaard." I said to her and she approached the map. The two lights weren't anywhere close to each other, the green on the far far left and the red on the complete other side. Magnus was the green and Ellegaard the red.

"Well, then let's head out" came a confident Jesse.

"I'm not going with you guys. I have to stay here" They all turned to me confused, I explained before they asked why. "If I know Petra, she's probably doing everything she can to find this place."

"Okay." Jesse said right away, "Stay here for when Petra finds us." There was no hint of doubt in her voice that Petra wasn't going to find and join us.

"Go, get help. I'll stay here and focus on making this place safe before nightfall." We had to have something better than that treehouse, more defences. "This place is pretty big though. If we're gonna have a chance of fortifying it, I'm going to need some help. If, uh, one of you guys could hang back and help me?" Jesse and Olivia seemed down with that plan,

"Sounds like Olivia will have you totally covered while me and Jesse are out finding Magnus."

"'Finding Magnus'? You really think that's how it's going to go?" Olivia turned and gave him a blank expression. "We need Ellegaard, she's the world's greatest engineer. She'll figure out a way to stop that thing."

"We're trying to DESTROY it, and when it comes to destruction, Magnus is the master." Axel tried again.

Jesse gave it a thought, looked at me and then to her friends. "Get ready to roll Axel, we're going to go find Magnus." That resulted in a hurray and fist pump from him. "Olivia stay here and help Lukas. Put that brain to use, I know you can magic up some great defences!" She gave Olivia a wink and started pushing Axel to the stairs, she gave me a wink as well and wished us luck.

"Please hurry!"


	3. S1E2: Assembly Required

**...**

 **Season One, Episode Two:  
Assembly Required**

Jesse POV

Me and Axel were back in the Nether in our minecarts heading off to find Magnus. Lukas and Olivia had stayed at the Order's temple to wait for Petra and to make it a safe place for us to stay.

I decided to not leave Axel behind and go with Olivia because well, I wouldn't exactly call Lukas, Axel's favourite person. I mean I got why he didn't like him but he was just taking it to far. I, for one, was glad Lukas is with us, he had a good brain like Olivia and is an even better builder.

"Wooo-hooo" Axel cried very loudly behind me shaking me from my thoughts, I turned around in my cart to see him with his hand in the air as we sped along the tracks, "Aw, come on Jesse. You're not even having a little fun? I mean, I am! Sure the world's in danger but this is our chance to be heroes! Breath in the sulphur!" I was definitely doing that last part.

"That's the spirit Axel!" I said to him cheering him on, his mood had spun on it's head and I was happy to keep it there. "But don't forget what we need to do. If we don't get the Order back together, the Wither Storm is going to eat everything!"

"You know what? We're going to find Magnus, bring him back, and he'll totally know how to blow that thing sky high!... Uh, dude!" Axel ended with concern, pointing behind me. I turned to face the front just as a Ghast appeared and shot a fireball at us, it hit the carts and sent us flying, hitting the ground and tracks hard. Luckily we hit a patch of land and not all the lava around us. We scrambled to hide behind a mound of Netherracks. "Why does it hate us so much?" Axel asked, I was pretty sure they hated anything not from here.

"The minecarts!" I shouted at him and pointed, they were slipping from the edge. "Get them, I'll cover you!" I ordered pulling out my gold sword and jumping in between him and the Ghast, I knew what to do here. As it fired at us I knocked it back, it took two, but I killed him.

Axel had finished pulling up the carts and we all bundled back in, with him taking the front cart this time. "You were awesome Jesse! With that Ghast and chasing the minecart. This is like, the perfect warm up for when we get to Boom Town!"

"Boom Town?" I said worryingly as we arrived at a portal, I guess I was going to find out.

* * *

I headed through the portal first and fell to the ground with Axel falling on top of me and Reuben landing on his feet neatly. Axel picked himself up and then helped me to my feet, feeling very crushed I looked up and apparently in Boom Town, portals and doors were build in mid air. Helpful.

Looking about there were debris of broken buildings, said broken buildings, blocks and explosions everywhere. Small fires were burning away and it didn't look like anyone was in a hurry to put them out, it was chaos. People actually lived here? We snuck along a wall trying to keep out of sight when I heard a trip wire sound off and explosions started round us, running we dodged here, there, around that cactus. A man ran out holding TNT which exploded. What in overworld was happening? Ducking behind a building and crouching on the sand we caught our breathes.

"Whoa, do you see that? Utter chaos man!" Axel sounded way too happy about that for my liking.

I took note of the surrounding now that I had a chance. We were in a massive town in the middle of a desert, cactus were scattered about looking sharp and fitting in well with the entire place. People were chasing each other with TNT and booms could be heard from so many different directions. How was this place still standing? Reuben had pretty much adhered to my leg and I didn't blame him.

"Well here you have it Jesse, Boom Town in all it's glory. What do you think?" I didn't want to give him my honest opinion but I also didn't want to lie.

"We should keep moving and find Magnus as fast as we can!" That's when I noticed a banner that had a picture of the amulet on it, retrieving it from my inventory I saw that the green part of it was glowing.

"Dude, it's freakin' glowing!" Axel called out next to me.

"That means he must be nearby! It moves brighter when I move in certain directions." I tried turning about and moving it up and down, trying to figure out which way Magnus actually was. It glowed brightest when I aimed it at an obsidian tower. "Ding ding ding. Looks like that spire is where we'll find Magnus."

That's when a girl with purple hair, a black mask and pink shirt jumped down. "Hey there new people. You said, uh, you know where Magnus is?"

"Why do you wanna know so badly?" I questioned her.

"Oh, no reason"

"What's going on?" called one guy with a whole bunch more showing up.

"Nohr found some noobs with a thingy that can find Magnus." They all started moving towards us.

"Everyone just back off, all right? We need this to find Magnus and..." I was cut of as the girl I guessed was Nohr grabbed it from me.

"Oh mighty Magnus! I have for you this offering..." She was talking like he was sort of God, holding up the amulet. A guy with a fishing pole appeared on the roof and hooked it from her. Nohr called out, chasing him and we joined her on the roofs. They were working together and split up, I chased the guy with the fishing pole and told Axel to follow Nohr. We had to get that amulet back. Climbing up higher he started throwing eggs, I dodged them all to his surprise and then the sound of an explosion followed by him falling, dropping the amulet and another guy catching it. Reuben came from somewhere and head-butted the guy, stopping him and giving me enough time to jump from the roof and land on him, the amulet bouncing away. Nohr came and picked it up, Axel what were you doing? Me and Reuben gave chase.

"Hey, did Nohr come this way?" Axel said catching up with me.

"Yeah, and she had the amulet again!" I told him crossly. "Stop right there!" I shouted as she ran into the building and blocked off the door. There were some vines so I started to climb as Axel tried to find another way in. Nohr popped out and tried to throw TNT at me, I jumped left and grabbed another set of vines, she tried again and this time I dodged right. I'd reached the top of the roof and Nohr was stood there trying to get the amulet to work, I grabbed it and we had a game of tug of war with it. "Give it back! This is more important than you could know!" The both of us fell backwards over a block of TNT and knocked it into life, oh no. I jumped but the explosion still caught me, sending me through a window of a building, the amulet flying passed just out of my reach. I hit the floor in the building with a bang and fumbled to stand back up holding my head, not impressed with Boom Town so far, but it was definitely aptly named.

"Ha nice, what did I tell you about teamwork?" Said a man to his friend below me who I could see through a gap in the floor, he had the amulet! I silently lowered myself down and snatched it from his hand. They threw a block of TNT up and I ran, jumping out of the high window and onto a ledge on a building across.

Griefers noticed I had that amulet and started after me, I ran in the other direction, spotting and picking up a load of chicken eggs as I did so. I ran to a building and up the broken outside of it and they all followed me. I saw Axel threw a gap who shouted to me to pass him the amulet. Please don't lose it, I thought as I threw it to him, catching it he ran towards the tower, the griefers still after me, they hadn't seen me pass off the amulet luckily. I started throwing the eggs at them, knocking them off the building and when I reached the top there was a block of TNT, just sitting there waiting for me. I didn't think, picked it up, threw it and ran. I made it to the tower and Axel was waiting for me there with Reuben.

"Jesse, you made it!" Axel said happily, handing me back the amulet.

"No need to sound so surprised." Thanks for the vote of confidence there Axel. I gave Reuben a pet, "Good boy Reuben!" And received a happy oink in return.

The three of us stood in front of two stone doors.

"Maybe it's locked or something? That's a thing people do to important doors, right?" Axel said to me, I decided to knock on them anyway and they opened. "Fine. Knocking worked. For once." We headed inside and there was nothing around us. Then, a trap opened under us and we fell.

* * *

Me and Axel hit the floor not too hard as it was mostly sand, Reuben came squealing down, bouncing from Axel to me and causing the amulet to fly out of my hand and roll across the floor. As I went to go and pick it back up a voice spoke to us,

"You are completely surrounded by hundreds of hidden death traps, one step closer. and.." A bald man in green armour and a black mask stepped out, throwing a lever, "KABOOM!" TNT popped up from the ground in front of us. We were on a sand and obsidian bridge in a small room with lava below us, TNT in front of us and no door behind. We were trapped. He picked up the amulet.

"It's MAGNUS! We totally got caught by Magnus!" Axel said jumping up and down his hands all excited in the air, I glared at him, not really the appropriate response to our situation. "and... Now we're going to die", he sagged.

"Did you really think you could sneak up on me? HA! You're two of the worst griefers I've ever met." Magnus told kindly.

"We're not griefers," I let him know. "We need your help!"

He ignored my plea, "Oh, really? I mean that guy" he pointed at Axel, "he's got 'griefer' written all over him."

"Tch yeah, that's because he's YOUR biggest fan." Magnus tossed the amulet about in his hands and walked across the space.

"Riight, so tell me something 'not griefers', how'd you find me? Who are you working for?" I didn't like the tone he suddenly had with us.

"Gabriel sent us, he gave me that amulet to find you!"

"Gabriel? HA! You really expect me to believe that you're buddy-buddy with Gabriel? You know how often people try and tell me that one?" He moved to a lever and hit it, the TNT in front of us flying to the sides but we didn't get to move far forward as more came from the ground. "This is all sounding pretty weird, dudes. Who are you really? And why are you here!?"

"Please, the world is in danger so I'm reassembling the Order!"

"You have me intrigued, go on." He pulled another lever and it did the same as before, TNT shooting to the sides and more popping out just in front.

"There's a huge monster eating up the entire world and nothing can stop it. That's why Gabriel told us to reunite the Order! Magnus, please, you gotta come with us, you might be the only chance that we have!" I pleaded with him, come on, please!

"Give me one reason why, for even a second, I should come with you?"

"I thought you were a hero!" I all but shouted at him. It sounded to me like he didn't want to help save the world. "The world needs a hero, you could come with us and help save the world!"

He turned away, thinking. "All this stuff you've told me... You expect me to just take your word for it?"

"Magnus, every word I'm saying is true, you have to believe me, please!"

He was silent for a very long time until he finally broke said silence by flipping another lever and removing the last of the TNT. "All right, all right, you sold me. Oh, but we might have a little bit of a problem getting out of here..." Magnus said walking to us. It was Magnus... Oh my! I'd met two, well three including Ivor, members of the Order.

"Huh?" Axel said, overcoming himself and finally talking, "but you're Magnus, you can just walk outta here..."

"Hello? I don't know if you've looked around this place, but it's kinda full'a griefers."

"But that's kinda awesome, right?" Axel said, I didn't follow that minecart of thought and Magnus surprisingly didn't either.

"heh, no. You've heard about the whole 'challenging the king for his crown thing', right? Well it's like, their thing. So long as I'm king, I can't leave this tower."

"We could sneak you out?" The second I said it I knew that it was a stupid idea.

"They'll see me. Look, I'm too good and they're too eager. It's like a vicious circle that just keeps me here!" He was pacing about trying to think of something that we could do, the same as me.

"Can't you just, choose a new king?"

"Look, I've beaten them dozens of times, and none of them are worthy. They'll see right through it." He paused but then a gleam came across his eyes. "But you, you're the newcomer with the golden amulet. By now they'll probably be all sorts of rumours about how awesome you are. If you beat me... Then I'll be able to leave."

"But wouldn't I just be stuck here then?" I thought to him.

"Nah, you're not as legendary as me. Should be easy enough to throw another fight or pass the crown to another low level griefer. The trick is, don't become a legend, but looking at you, I don't think, uh, well anyway..." Uh, thanks, I think? But, it was better than no plan I suppose.

"Well ok then."

"Oh oh, this is gonna be good, I'm actually excited about this. But we gotta make sure that it looks legit. The Death Bowl has never seen the carnage that we're about to create!" The Death Bowl!? I didn't like the sound of that...

* * *

He led us to an open space between parts of broken buildings, it was sort of a 'bowl' shape but previous encounters had clearly taken their toll.

"This is the DEATH BOWL!" Magnus announced standing in the middle and waving to his many fans.

A host sort of person in a suit walked out with weird red and blue glasses. "Welcome ladies and gentlegriefers to the Death Bowl! In one corner we have Magnus, your king of Boom Town, here to defend his title and crown!" The crowd went wild and Magnus milked it for all it was worth, geez. I thought we were supposed to be saving the world, what was going on and how did it happen?

"So Tiny," Magnus started saying to me under the noise of the crowd, "welcome to the Death Bowl. The grief-off to end all grief-offs. How do you wanna fake this?" That was a good question and one I should probably think about. I'm guessing we had to use TNT to make it look real, so I concluded with,

"Just no crazy cannons."

"uhuh, I heard something about cannons, got it" and he walked off to his side, wait, no!

"And you!" Came the announce up to me, "what name do you go by?" I uh, errrr...

"I am Jesse the Destroyer! And I am here to destroy my competition!"

"You heard the name folks, give a big Death Bowl welcome to the Destrooooooooyer!" And that they did.

"Then let's begin" me and Magnus stood face to face in the centre, the announcer explained how this was going to work. Thank gosh. "Opponents will craft their own griefing towers, which they we then use to grief each other. The only rule, no eye poking. Destroyer, pick your building material, and Magnus you..."

"Nah I'm good, brought my own supply." Oh great.

"Let the griefing, BEGIN!"

I went over to a few chests that were lined up, I had; wood, stone and pink wool to pick from, none of these were going to be of any real good against THE Magnus, Reuben seemed to want me to pick the pink wool, and I did. Why not? Moving to the space I had to build my tower in, I built a piggy with a platform for me to stand on top of. I had a chest with supplies in and some sort of piston/slime launcher.

That's when I looked up to see Axel jumping about all excited on Magnus's side. "Axel, what are you doing over there on his side?" Traitor.

"Yeah, I thought you might bring that up. It's just that Reuben wanted to take your side and I didn't wanna crowd him or anything, so, um, I thought I'd watch from over here." I shock my head at him. The griefing had began.

I thought I'd stick to small things first so picked up the eggs I had, throwing one at Magnus and completely missing... "And, that's how you shouldn't throw an egg!" I tried again and hit him square on, a chicken popping out of it. He taunted me and I retaliated trying to keep up our charade.

"You are but a student. Prepare yourself for I am about to give you your final lesson." Magnus called to me walking to the TNT launcher he had. He launched a block and it completely missed me, nearly hitting the host. "Eh, that was just a warning!"

"What? A warning that you need glasses!" Jeered someone from the crowd. I laughed

"It seems that the student has become the master, and the mighty destroyer will win the day!"

"I don't know what that means, but I like it and want to put it on a t-shirt!" Came another voice from the crowd.

I launched my own piece of TNT at Magnus but to my surprise he put up some slime blocks and it bounced right back at me, just missing. Hey! What happened to the plan? Getting up from my platform I looked over to him and he was glaring at me, "No one messes with the BOOM MASTER!" Axel came running over and asked if I was ok.

"What about the plan!?" I mouthed to Magnus

"Jesse." Axel called up from his place on the ground, "I think he's lost it." Yeah I think that was a moot point now, what was I going to do? The crowd starting calling for cannons and Magnus said he'd give them one, but I thought we said no cannons. Axel said I should craft the greatest thing of my life, but out of what? I only had so much up here. I gathered some stone blocks and made a quick shield in front of me, yeah that wasn't going to do a lot. Magnus on the other hand was laughing like a crazed manic from his blue skull pouring with lava. How did he build that so fast? You were supposed to throw the fight I thought rather uselessly now. He wasn't called the master of destruction for nothing it seemed, throwing levers and TNT shot forward hitting parts of my tower. I ducked and dodged, moving the best I could on the bits of my pig tower that still stood. Reuben got up and ran over to Magnus clearly up to something, while Axel rooted about in the chests below trying to find something to help me. I saw Reuben appear by Magnus and start trying to distract him, good boy Reuben. Axel had found an arrow and threw it up to me, I forgot I had a bow. I caught it but didn't see what good a single arrow was going to be against Magnus.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" I questioned him.

"The TNT, inside of the cannon" Axel might be a bit simple at times but right now he was in his element, he knew this stuff. I heard Reuben squeal and look up, Magnus had loaded him into the launcher.

"Time to see you fly, pig!" And Reuben soared into the sky, Axel ran back and managed to catch him. And my heart went back to where it was supposed to be. No one hurt my pig!

"Hey, Magnus!" He looked over to me and resumed in firing TNT at me, "Flying pig jokes are so played out!", I jumped into the air dodging TNT, taking aim and shot the arrow, it hit it's target, the large stack of TNT behind Magnus.

"Oh crap!" Magnus realized a little too late the fire in his eyes going out. The TNT exploding caused more to explode around it, the forces of which knocked him from his tower and he fell, hitting the ground. Me on the other hand, grabbed a single pink woollen block with my free hand and heaved myself onto it, I had won, although right now I was more amazed to still be in one piece. The crowd were as shocked as me.

The host came out from his hiding spot and looked at us both, "we have a winner! The Destroyer!" The crowd starting cheering and whooping at me, I jumped down from the block, Axel and Reuben coming to meet me. The host asked for me to say something but I honestly didn't know what, in my confusion I didn't noticed the crowd quiet down and come over.

"Welp, you guys ready then?" Said one

"Yeah, this'll be a way easier target than Magnus!" Came another. Wait, but I beat him... What was going on?

Just then a noise came from the town and everyone turned to see, oh no... The Wither Storm! "HOLY CRAP!" Magnus shouted, "is that YOUR Wither Storm." Hey, it wasn't mine by choice, trust me I was quite happy not having one. Was it looking for us? Gabriel said it was after him, maybe it was after the other members as well since Ivor must have a grudge against all of them after all. It started doing what it did best; sucking up blocks, and people, with it's purple beam. Shooting fire balls and generally being the worst thing you can imagine. "How are we, what are we, uhh!" Stuttered Magnus. "No, no no no no no! Stop eating my kingdom!" He ordered it but I don't think it listened to many people.

I grabbed his arm and gave him a shake, "Magnus, we have to leave, right now, through the portal and get back to the temple!" I pulled him with us and we ran, Magnus turned his head back to let it know that it would regret messing with Boom Town. I hoped that was true.

We had finally made it back, Magnus and all. It was now evening and as we made our way over in the direction of the temple and I hoped that Lukas and Olivia were doing better than us, I was nearly one hundred percent sure they would have less bruises at least. Boom Town was, well, a Boom Town.

"Wow, someone really went bonkers with the defences." Magnus said as he reached the temple, and they really had. There was an actual door now, not just a big open gap, and an iron one at that, said gap had been filled in with stone and iron, redstone blocks and wires were placed about going to various dispensers. We goggled at it when a hissing sound started, we turned to face a Creeper that was immediately shot with arrows, followed by a voice which belong to a Lukas who was standing above the door with a bow and arrows,

"Who goes there?" He said a little too dramatically. "Oh Jesse, is that you?"

"We're baaaack!" It was tempting to joke and say something silly like 'Hi honey, we're home' but considering Axel's feelings I thought I'd best not. "Lukas, did you build all this?" I asked instead.

"Well, yeah. I figured I'd try and fortify the place, y'know."

"Nice!" I said admiring his, and probably Olivia's, work.

"I'm so glad you're back" He called, waving to us.

"And we brought Magnus!" I shouted back up at him, standing to one side and putting my hands out as if to say 'Ta-da!'

"Fantastic!" He replied with a little happy jump, coming down to opened the door to us, "You guys are never going to believe who showed up while you were gone."

There was a red haired girl leaning against a wall and she asked, "Hey guys, how's it going?"

"PETRA!" I forgot myself and launched at her giving her the strongest hug I could give. I felt like crying and I probably was, I also didn't care. Reuben ran around us just as happy to see her as I was. He oinked and squeaked at her, after she pried me off she knelt down and gave him a pat. I put my hands over my eyes trying to calm myself down.

"Petra, you made it!" Axel was next to give her a hug, but he controlled himself a lot better than I had.

Lukas stood next to me and I took my hands away giving my eyes a wipe. "She's alive Lukas, I knew it. I'm so happy, this is the best thing ever!" He patted my shoulder a bit, unsure of what to say to an emotional, crying girl.

"It's so good to see you both" Petra said.

"I'm so glad you're here Petra," I think she got that bit.

"After you pulled me out of that Storm, I pretty much ran for this temple. If you hadn't saved me, well, I owe you everything Jesse!"

"You don't owe me a thing, you're alive, that's all that matters." We had started making our way inside the temple to the map room. "What happened?"

"It's all just such a blur, but the Wither Storm left almost nothing behind. Everyone, everything, is just gone... Even Gabriel." We all wore the same shocked expressions at that bit of news. I looked to see that Magnus wore the same look before his expression turned cloudy, extremely upset by this news, they were friends and had fought together for many years after all, I had no idea what he was feeling. I put a hand on his shoulder in a hope to comfort him. As we reached the map room he tried to gather himself,

"Been a while since I've been here." It showed in how the place was falling down. Lukas and Olivia had tried to build up some of the walls a bit, there was still barely a roof, but they'd done a lot in the time that they'd have, considering we had no materials when we first got here. "What. Is. She. Doing. Here?" I looked at Magnus who now, instead of sad, looked angry, I looked across the room to see Olivia standing with, wait... Ellegaard!? Holy hell.

"Call this a hunch," came Petra, "But do you two not like each other?"

"Right, I forgot to mention." Explained Lukas, "Olivia went on a little... Expedition of her own while you were gone."

"And this 'Olivia' person came back with her?" Magnus directed at me. "Did you know about this?"

"That's Ellegaard right? The redstone engineer?" I goggled over at her. Four members in two days. It was a shame Soren was missing, although if they were all in the same room, I don't think I could form words.

"Well, if you're such a big fan, why don't you go and hang out with her then?" Magnus sulked at me, hurt. Hey, I liked you all, you were all amazing heroes in my eyes.

"Jesse, Jesse!" Shouted Olivia, finally noticing us behind Ellegaard sparkles. "I found Ellegaard!"

Before going over I tried to explain to Magnus, "Look, Olivia is my friend and I didn't know she was going off to find Ellegaard, but you saw that Storm, we need everyone if we're going to stop that thing." He eyed me. "Just hang here, I'll go and see what's going on." I left Magnus with my friends, being a grump.

Ellegaard turned right to me, "So who are you now - and why did you bring HIM with you?" She wasn't wearing her helmet and goggles like in the stories, her brown hair and eyes visible. But she was wearing her red and gold armour, matching boots and gloves with black chest plate.

"I uh, I, err" So much. Happening. Brain. Not working! "We're reuniting the Order of the Stone!" I managed, I was sure Olivia had already told her that but surely that explained why they were both here?

"It was kind of crazy actually" Olivia decided to try, "I went to Redstonia and there were all these incredible engineers and inventors." I smiled at her, I knew that was her idea of heaven. "It was a little intimidating actually, but Ellegaard made me her protege!" Wow really? Oh I was so happy for her, ever since I'd known her all Olivia had wanted to do was be like Ellegaard, now she'd met her and was going to learn from her, you only had to look at her face to see how happy she was about this.

"Well, assistant for now" Ellegaard corrected. Olivia backed down looking a little sheepish.

"I'm the king of Boom Town!" I told them with a big cheesy grin on my face in the hopes to moving Ellegaard along from shooting down my best friend's dreams.

"Impressive" Ellegaard told me rather dryly. "Olivia, may have embarrassed herself a tiny bit." She continued, clearly not moving on.

"Yeah, well, after I pleaded my case, she agreed to take me on as her assistant and come back to help! Great right!" I don't think anything could stop Olivia from being happy in this moment. I was proud of her, it looked as though she'd gained some confidence in herself, not only going back into the Nether and heading to get Ellegaard herself, but she also kept going and made it out the other side. Once this was over I had to do something nice for her.

Magnus came over to ruin the moment, him and Axel were a lot a like it seemed.

"Oh, hoo-ray! It's Ellie. And here I was just starting to enjoy myself."

"Hello Magnus. Your voice is exactly as pleasant as I remember, which is to say, not at all." I inwardly face palmed, we didn't need more of this sort of thing. I peaked over at the rest of the group and Axel were actually stood talking with Lukas. At last, that was one box ticked.

"Ow, my feelings!" Magnus shot back, "is that the same wit you're going to use to save the world?"

"Why, you here to tell me how to do it better?"

"Oh I would never dream of doing that! Unlike you I actually do things instead of just talking about them."

"Hey, that's Ellegaard you're talking to. Show her some respect!" Olivia chipped in.

"Would you ALL cut it out? Holy crap, you're acting like crazy people!" They went quiet, Ellegaard and Magnus turned and walked away. "Uh, people. Can we please focus on the bigger picture here? We have a very hungry Wither Storm in the process of turning the whole world into it's dinner!" I tired again.

"Yeah, I'll admit," Magnus said giving in, "that thing looked real nasty, and I've seen some nasty things in my time."

"Too much for you, was it? Your usual brutish approach didn't cut it?" Ellegaard taunted back.

"Hey! You weren't they all right, you didn't see how this thing just tore up everything!"

"Would you two STOP FIGHTING!?" I yelled and the whole group stared at me. I received whoas and yikes but they both shut up.

"Jesse's right." Petra said backing me up. "We need to work together to stop that thing."

"I don't know if you've looked around yet," came Ellegaard's positive attitude again, "but this place isn't nearly the stronghold that it used to be. Most of our supplies are gone."

"It would take a mountain of TNT to kill that thing."

"I hate to admit it, but you have a point." Ellegaard said actually agreeing with Magnus for the first time since we got here. The two of them stood a little forward looking at me with everyone else in the back talking among themselves looking amazed at what was actually happening, we were working with two members of the Order of the Stone. It was a strange sort of day.

"Okay, so what are we going to do here?" I asked trying to get to the point.

"Even if we had all the TNT from miles around, I don't think it would be enough.." Magnus replied, and his fellow member nodded in agreement.

"If only Soren were here, he might have something we could use." Ellegaard said to the room more than anyone in particular.

"Oh Ellie, not this again! You know I hate when you brag about yours and Soren's little brainy club." These two just couldn't get along, how in overworld had they managed to defeat an Ender Dragon when being in the same room turned it into a war zone? I was starting to actually miss the Wither Storm, at least it got on with it's job. Sighing, I put a hand to my head which had started to hurt.

"Magnus, let her speak. What does Soren have?"

"Soren had a sort of 'super TNT', stronger and more explosive than anything else in the world... The Formidi-Bomb!"

"Do you know where it is? Can we get some?" I asked her, excited that we might actually have something here.

"Well there's a little problem there, we don't actually know where Soren is." Ellegaard reminded me. Oh yeah, well that was a problem. "You found us, do you know where he is?" I shock my head.

"He wasn't on the map before." I told her.

"It could locate him, unless he's in The Nether or The End..." We all looked defeated, if he was in either of those places, finding him would be the same amount of impossible as defeating the Storm. The group split up; to think, to rest, just to have a moment before we tried to figure this one out.

* * *

Lukas POV

It was just one problem after another for us. So we had a nasty Wither Storm raging about in our world, Gabriel had giving us the mission to find the rest of the Order and then vanished. The two we did find couldn't stand each other, and just when we thought we had a vine to grab onto, we didn't know where the man who had it even was.

I leant against the altar by myself exhausted, it sounded like we were heading back to The Nether or The End now, neither of which sounded very appealing. The Nether was awful and The End was supposed to be even worse, hence the name I guess?

Ellegaard was pondering over the map with Olivia standing a ways behind, watching her looking as defeated as I felt. Petra was sat with Reuben underneath it, I'm sure she was definitely tired. Of course I was happy when Petra had somehow found the temple, Olivia wasn't here then, we'd both done what we could, with what we had and could find to the temple. I was taken back but how much Olivia knew about redstone and it's various uses, I could see why Jesse suggested her to stay back and also relived I didn't have to work with Axel, I was still a little sour from the night before. Jesse was talking to a 'too happy for this scene' Axel and Magnus off to the right at the other side of the room. Call it a hunch, but I think Axel was a fan of Magnus, just a guess though.

She finished talking to them, sat with Petra and Reuben for a tiny while, said something about carrots and then came to see me. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm all right. This has all been pretty intense. If I think too much about what's been going on, well, I'll just think I'm going completely nuts."

"Heh, I feel the same way, just trying to keep moving forward. I'll freak out about this when the world's not ending. I, uh..."

"Hmm?"

"I just wanted to say thank you for all your help, and for putting up with Axel as well I guess. I... I know we haven't always gotten along in the past, but you've been so great, I'm glad you're here!"

I blinked at her, "uh, wow. Thanks Jesse, that really means a lot." It really did and just like that I stopped feeling so sorry for myself. Was she really glad I was here? I watched her for a moment wondering what I'd done to deserve such nice treatment. Jesse had remained so positive this entire time, keeping all our spirits up and trying to keep the peace, I was about to ask if she was okay herself when she called Olivia over.

"Hey 'Liv, come over here." A reluctant Olivia plodded over. "Are you okay? You don't look okay..."

"... I can't shake the feeling that I embarrassed myself back in Redstonia in front of Ellegaard. I get the feeling that she judges me a bit now."

"Hey hey, come on. She's like, your idol, it makes sense you'd be all over the place. Axel was back in Boom Town. Magnus caught us in a trap and he was actually excited about it." We both looked over to said Axel who was bothering his idol, I could believe that.

"Why don't you show her the things you built here? I know what your work looks like. You've got all the time now you're her assistant to show her what you've got! Don't be defeated, I know you can do it!"

"I wish I had the confidence that you had in me Jesse." I wouldn't mind some of that myself I thought, but Jesse was a great friend. She didn't just say it was going to be okay, she tried to back that up and spur her friends on. Olivia clearly lacked belief in herself and I wondered why.

"I agree with Jesse, Olivia," she looked to me a little shocked. "You've got the knowledge and the skills."

"See, even Lukas has noticed! Now what was that little word we said about that began with an f?"

"Food?" Olivia answered her, "I could really go for some of that right now." Jesse laughed at her.

"No silly, faith." Jesse tilted her head watching Olivia who gathered herself up.

"Thanks guys. I'll keep trying." She gave us a weak smile. Ellegaard then called Jesse over to ask about the amulet and the map, leaving the two of us stood together.

"Jesse's really great isn't she." Wait, I said that out loud didn't I? Olivia gave me a wary eye which let me know that I had indeed, said that out loud, luckily, she didn't question it,

"She really is. I know I don't have confidence and I really do try, that's why I wanted to go to Redstonia by myself but... Yeah..." She trailed off ending in a mutter something to do with fainting. "I'm glad you're on our side now," Olivia continued, "Jesse is the nicest person you'll ever meet, I used to hate it how she took the hits from the other Ocelots for us, she didn't deserve it."

"Yeah, I can see that now." Olivia smiled back at me. Hopefully after the world was saved we could continue on like this.

The altar beamed into life and the red and green lights shown on it once more.

The group came back together and Magnus spoke up, "All right, there's your light, my light..." Just like before, that was until a white light appeared at the very top of that map.

"There he is!" Ellegaard said, "Soren has his fortress deep inside the mountains, ever since the Order broke up." She spoke with Magnus about how they'd been there and that it seemed weird. Who cares? This was great news, we now knew where he was, even if it was a long way away.

Jesse came forward to the two of them, "Well then, let's go get us some..." She was cut short by another light, a purple one appearing on the board. Purple? Well blue had to be Gabriel who wasn't here, so who was this? "Ivor!?" Jesse called. Of course, I'd forgotten that he was a member as well. "It's not too far, we could probably make it on foot!"

"Perfect, we can travel in the morning with a full days sunlight." Ellegaard suggested.

"Uhh, and risk that thing catching up with us? I think I've had enough Wither Storm for one day, thank you very much." Magnus shot right back.

"Yeah, because getting caught out in the dark is so much better." Man, these guys just couldn't get along.

"I think we should go now," Jesse suggested, "We need to beat Ivor and the Wither Storm. We can win against a few mobs, I'm sure." After everyone agreed we set off towards Soren.

* * *

Jesse POV

I took the lead and we had started making our way through a thin wooded area towards Soren who hopefully did have this super TNT, and if he didn't, then at least had another player on the team.

"Jesse, right?" Asked an Ellegaard who came up beside me. How did she not know that by now?

"Uh, hello?"

"We haven't had the chance to acquaint ourselves properly yet." I guess that was true, so far the only words I had for her were stuck up, I'd like for that to change. "I've heard from the others that you're the sort of leader of the group, keeping everyone together... Sounds like you're a pretty impressive individual."

"I'm just trying my best for everyone... Are you making fun of me?" That last bit hadn't meant to come out.

"Making fun of you? Oh no I'm saying that you sound like a legitimately impressive individual. My apologies if my, uh, tone is a little hard to read." Ellegaard followed up nervously. It was but I'm glad she noticed that and apologized, I smiled at her. "Slight tangent, what's the, uh, 'deal' with your friend, Olivia? I admire her enthusiasm, but she can be a little much sometimes."

This was my chance to put in good for Olivia, try and win back some Ellegaard points for her. "I don't know if you caught this, but she's like your biggest fan, you probably just make her nervous. Give her a chance, you'll be surprised."

"That's an... Excellent point. I hadn't thought about that. Seems like you respect her a lot, why didn't you listen to her plan and come to recruit me?" Was she angry that I'd gone for Magnus instead? These two had some sort of beef and I didn't want a piece of it.

"I knew Olivia would be best at helping to build defences at the temple, it made sense. It's not personal."

"Oh, uh, sorry." She recoiled back, "I'll let it go..." I was sure that she wouldn't. My earlier opinion still holding strong, this was not how I pictured the order at all. That was when we heard groans and stopped to look about, monsters had noticed us and were moving to have their input on our situation. "Yup, this is exactly why we should have waited until morning."

"At least the Wither Storm isn't tearing us apart right now, all right?" Magnus said and I had to agree. Spider, Skeletons, Zombies and Creepers were all about but that Storm wasn't and that was far worse.

We took up arms with what we had. Sword and bows came out, Magnus with his TNT and we got to work. Trying not to fight more than we had to and keep moving.

Three zombies blocked my path but I made light work of them with my gold sword, Lukas was in front of me by a tree trying to snipe out skeletons with his bow and Magnus was chasing, actually chasing a mob with TNT in his hands. After what seemed like the longest night, well since the one before it, we reached a mountain with golden doors and went right inside, blocking out the mobs.

We stood about in a group, catching our breath and gandering at what had to be Soren's handy work. So many; quartz, lapis and blue blocks were around us. We were on a bridge in the middle of a massive and impressive space, an entrance which was far more amazing than entire builds I'd seen. He was called Soren the Architect and leader of the Order for a reason it seemed, I just hoped he was a reasonable man unlike the two we currently had with us... And Ivor.

"Soren really lived out here? So far from... Anyone?" Lukas awed.

"Enchanting, isn't it?" Ellegaard said to him as we made our way to the other side of the bridge. Petra was at the back of the group and I noticed her coughing, I made a mental note to keep an eye on her.

The other side of the bridge led to another room with a long drop below it and columns poking up in a sort of stepping stone path. What sort of room was this? Magnus jumped right across calling to us that it was fine and Axel followed right on after him with Ellegaard in tow. The others jumped as well but I saw Reuben shaking a little bit, I pet him and told him to just not fall. Stupid advice, I know.

Reuben did make the jumps but the floor starting moving downwards where he was stood, I jumped back to pull him up but the floor moved again and we fell, Reuben coming down with me in a heap. Gathering myself up I saw the source of the columns moving down; Endermen. They were moving blocks about, as Endermen do, I hid my eyes quickly and hid behind a column, Reuben squealed.

Then all of a sudden, a Lukas fell down too. "I heard your voice and thought I would come down to help." I wasn't sure if he actually meant that or he fell himself, but I was thankful he was here, I grabbed his sleeve and pulled him with me behind the column and pointed at the Endermen, he immediately looked down, trying to not make eye contact, You see Endermen are fine and will probably ignore you so long as you don't look at them, but there was a problem... "There's so many of them." He whispered to me.

"I didn't know that they came in groups that big." I whispered back, "thanks for coming back for me. I really do mean that." He gave me a smile and looked like he was about to say something but then Reuben started squealing and I turned around right into the face of an Enderman who roared at me, damn it. We dodged out the way as one of his friends came towards us roaring the scream-y noise that they made, I moved backwards trying to keep my eyes on where they were without directly looking at them when my foot didn't hit floor any more and I splashed down into water. Thankfully, the Endermen didn't follow us. Lukas saw me floating away and jumped in, followed by Reuben. There was a rushing noise which unfortunately belonged to a waterfall, oh no. Endermen behind and a waterfall in front? We chose waterfall, going over and landing in a very cold massive pool of water. Lukas was busy admiring the architecture, blue eyes all big not caring he was in a pool of water, I thought it was adorable and then shock my head blushing, thankfully we heard shouts, looked at each other and headed in the direction that they were coming.

"Oh be quiet, it's just a pointless building! That's all I'm saying, I mean, just look at it!" Magnus was shouting as loud as he could.

"Magnus, if an artist painted the inside of your mind, he'd end up with the most extraordinary desert scape paintings." Oh ouch, that was a little harsh Ellegaard. The three of us had made it across and joined them. "That's it, I'm going! Once again, it falls to me to take care of everything!" And with that she walked off to the left into one of the two tunnels.

"Oh no no no, you DO NOT get to be the one who walks away!" Magnus shouted after her, going towards the other tunnel, "See, I'm walking away too now!"

"It's hard to pick glass half full when they keep kicking the glass over." Olivia turned and said to us after they'd gone.

"Forget about them, let's just figure out what to do next." The group nodded at me and split up to search this room.

It was much larger than the others, all stone and quartz blocks with a depiction of the amulet on the centre wall and it was massive. Four giant statues lined up, two each side of the room with a tunnel between them. Starting the most left was Gabriel the Warrior with blue decorations who stood next to Ellegaard The Engineer with red. The other side had Magnus the Rogue with green and Soren the Architect with white. This must of been a secret hidden temple for them or something but no Ivor statue with purple I thought to myself, I wonder what had happened between them.

Me and Axel started talking about how we would pose if we had statues causing Olivia to give us a look which made me laugh out loud, she then called me over.

Turns out Olivia had also noticed Petra being strange but said that she wouldn't talk about it, hoping that I could help in some way instead. I told her I'd give it a shot when I had the chance.

I was about to say that I was going to follow Magnus and stood by the tunnel that he went down when Petra came over to me asking if she could have a word in private, this was my chance, the other three took off after Ellegaard while; me, Petra and Reuben went after Magnus.

We walked a little ways and Petra hadn't said anything yet, I didn't want to push for her to talk but I was getting very concerned over her, this wasn't the strong Petra I knew.

"I feel bad about ditching everyone else," she finally started, "but I just wanted to talk to you alone about this."

"Whatever it is, you can trust me. I'm here for you Petra!" I comforted her. Whatever this was it was clearly affecting her big time.

"Thanks for being so understanding." I nodded, gave her a smile and she was quiet a moment before continuing, "You got me away from the Wither Storm, but I'm worried that I didn't get away soon enough." Petra rolled up her one sleeve to reveal a purple mark on her arm, she was sick!? "Do you know what Wither is?"

"What? Of course, we've been..."

"No just Wither." I gave her a look which showed that I didn't, "or well, Wither sickness I guess. And I have a feeling that it's just going to continue getting worse."

"We can go back, tell the others, find help..."

"You can't tell anyone about this!" I was about to keep protesting when we heard the hiss of a Creeper, it jumped us and exploded before we even had a chance to react. I fell down the hole it had created and clung to the edge. "Jesse! Hold on, I'll pull you up!" I took Petra's hand but she didn't have the strength to fully pull me up and I fell down and hit the floor, luckily it wasn't a massive drop. "I'm sorry! I just, couldn't hold on. Jesse, are you okay?"

"Don't worry, I'm fine as long as you're okay."

"I'll see if I can find another way down to you." Petra then left with Reuben.

I noticed that in my fall I'd dropped the amulet which had rolled a little away. I went to pick it up noticing a faint purple light, which I was glad for as this tunnel was completely dark. Seeing no where else to go, I followed said tunnel using the amulet as a makeshift light source and came out into the biggest library you have ever seen.

Bookcases lined walls so high that if you fell, you'd be lucky to escape with just broken bones. Glowstone littered the room giving it a nice warm light, you wouldn't believe we were deep inside a mountain. I stood around admiring Soren's work when I heard a mutter coming from a gap in the bookcases to my right, it seemed to lead to a small adjacent room.

The little room had a couple bookcases dotted about, a low white table in the middle, a few swords and armour stands about, it looked more like a storage room than anything. There was someone stood looking through the books.

"Hello?" I said to the person as I inched into the room. Soren? It wasn't Soren...

"You!?" Ivor said turning around. So he did make it, and before us. "Trying to interfere with my plans again, I see." He walked towards me and I stuck my hands to my hips glaring at him.

"Just calm down, what are YOU doing down here?"

"Being rudely interrupted by you, clearly!"

"I'm here with the Order to find Soren's super TNT, we're going to take down that Wither Storm of yours."

"The Order!? Haha, believe me, that plan will blow up in their face, in more ways than one!" I did believe him, well about the Order, but our plan was going to work! "Out of my way!"

"But I have questions!" He was here for a reason and if that reason was stopping his Storm as well then I had to know. He wasn't listening and pushed past me.

"Oh, you're not going anywhere!" Said Petra from the bookcase gap, pulling out her stone sword.

"Petra!? You escaped!?" Ivor was taken back by seeing her still alive and stood in the way. She backed him up but he fumbled behind him for a gold sword and stood up to her with it. They clashed, I knew Petra was a great fighter but she was also sick, so I took out my own gold sword and crept up behind, knocking him down. "I'm the only one who can stop that Wither Storm! Don't make yourselves the villains in my story." If he knew something then why wasn't he helping us take it down? He charged me and we parried, I knocked his sword hand away, pushing him to the ground. "If you want to stop me, you'll have to catch me first!" And he reached for a potion, drinking it.

Suddenly he was everywhere, so fast. Petra dove for the gap in an attempt to stop him, she blocked his tries and again I knocked him from behind. Seeing as his plan wasn't working he tried a different tactic and potion, invisibility this time. Petra was completely blocking the gap, he would have to shove her to move her out of the way and then we'd know where he was, so he had to still be in this room.

Potions started coming my way but I dodged them all, he then tried aiming for Petra instead but I jumped across the room, caught it and threw it back the way it came, it hit him and he was visible again.

"There's no time for this, this could have all been avoided." Ivor exclaimed getting up from the floor.

"Jesse! Petra!" Lukas called from behind bringing Olivia and Axel with him. We stood in the door way together.

"Even more of you? Will this endless parade of useless babblers never cease?"

"We found Ivor, we stopped him." I said to the group to catch them up.

"Jesse did anyway." Added Petra.

"False, you have stopped nothing. A query... Have you ever seen the effects of a splash potion of slowness?" Before anyone could react, Ivor smashed another potion on the floor at our feet and the world went slow, or rather we did, and he just walked on passed us, they was nothing we could do at this speed, "Magnus and Ellegaard may think that they can stop me, that they can destroy the Wither Storm but they are mistaken, and it will cost them their lives." That was the last thing he said before closing the gap in the bookcases and locking us in.


	4. S1E3: The Last Place You Look

**Episode Three: The Last Place You Look**

* * *

Jesse POV

"You won't get away with this!" I called after Ivor as he was shutting the door, there was no way we were going to catch up after that potion of slowness. I heard Lukas tell me to move out of the way and I turned around to see Axel who had tripped coming towards me, luckily we went back to normal speed and Axel hit the floor instead of me. "... I uh," Everyone was stood by where the door was looking pretty weirded out by the whole moving in slow motion thing. "Is everyone okay?"

"I felt all of that." Axel said with his face in the floor.

I looked to see Petra hobbling to the table in the middle while Olivia and Lukas pondered about the door and if we could get it open from this side. "Doing okay?"

"Why are you asking me that?" Petra snapped at me.

"Just checking up on you!"

"Everything's fine, all of it. Wait, are you..." She started coughing not able to finish her sentence. She looked awful, pale skin and bags under her eyes, she showed me her arm again, the purpleness was spreading, "I'm not trying to freak YOU out right now, but I'm pretty freaked out."

I was freaked out, "We have to tell the others Petra!"

"No! I don't want to cause any panic. Look if it becomes any worse I'll tell them, but please, let me do it." I sighed and agreed with her, but what I didn't noticed was that Lukas was looking this way, he knew something was up.  
Petra had to be okay, she just had to be. She was such an important person to me, even more so now after we'd nearly lost her earlier.

"Hey guys, I have an idea." Axel spoke up. Really? "Magnus, help!" he shouted through the bookcases. I sighed, I was an idiot to think that it would be anything helpful. He turned to us who all gave him 'you're an idiot' looks. "Well all right, but I have another idea."

"Is it yelling for Ellegaard?" Olivia asked.

"Well... Not, any more..."

"Look, they aren't coming back. We have no idea where they are" Lukas said sadly and moved away from the door.

"They couldn't abandon us even if they wanted to, as long as we have... This!" I said pulling out the amulet! The green and red section were glowing but then faded.

"Is it, broken?" Petra asked.

"Here, let me see it!" Lukas all but demanded, walking up and grabbing it. We had a game of tub of war. "Maybe you're just holding it wrong."

"Do you mind?" I said crossly, what was his problem? I knew how to use this and Gabriel gave it to me, I felt responsible for it.

"I just want to see it."

"You can see it without touching!"

"Not if you can't get it to work!"

"It's working fine!" The rest of the group stood looking just as confused as I was by this. Me and Lukas looked at each other while pulling on the amulet, what was he thinking? The white part of the amulet started glowing and he let go. "Soren!" I started moving about the room with it, just as I did in Boom Town, to figure out which direction he was in, I came to a stop at a place above the floor. That was where the white light glowed the brightest. "This is the spot, it has to be." I told everyone who came and gathered by it. "Get ready to dig people!"

"Who knows how far down we'll need to go, we're not really equipped for this." My! Lukas was being strange right now, we didn't really have much of a choice, we needed to get to Soren and through the floor was looking like the only way.

"We're digging, with our hands if we have to!"

"Yeah, okay Jesse. I'm with you, it's just..." He replied awkwardly rubbing the back of his blond hair.

"PAI GOW!" Axel shouted punching the ground hard enough to cause a piece of it to break.

"Let's get to it then." I said to the group and we started to dig a small tunnel downwards leaving a few blocks sticking out to jump up and down from along the way. I hope Soren didn't mind us destroying his place.

I was at the bottom and my friends all at the top when I broke through to an open tunnel. I used the amulet glow as a light, it wasn't far to jump down.

Axel shouted down to me, "Are we cool?"

"It's a hole." I shouted back. "I'll jump down and see." I landed on my feet and well, it was a dark tunnel, I called up to the guys saying it looked fine and Olivia started climbing down over the edge. I looked around and noticed that the wall behind me was moving... "Wait!"

"You have to say that now?" Olivia said not too happy as she was a little ways down. That's when bats exploded around me and I screamed, causing everyone else to above me and Axel asked what was going on. I shooed them away and told them it was just bats and that it was definitely okay now, Olivia didn't look so sure about that but made her way down. Lukas pretty much just jumped the whole way and landed on his feet, Reuben did the same. Axel must of slipped as he came crashing down on top of Lukas, I winced feeling his pain but still giggled and went to offer him my hand to help him up, which he took, giving Axel a shove at the same time. Lukas had a grumpy look on his face as he dusted himself off which caused me to laugh again and I gained a smile from him.  
Reuben came and nudged my leg, I gave him a pat and then Petra made her way down, not looking so great. I knew she didn't want anyone to know so got everyone moving, but I was sure that Lukas knew something wasn't right.

We eventually came to the end of the longest tunnel in the world and moved slowly to what wasn't an end but an edge. Looking down, you could barely see the bottom but it looked as though there was a pool of water down there. All along the sides were other tunnel openings sticking out at various heights and distances across. You could see ores and blocks poking about and the whole place was lit up with torches and glowstone. What in the overworld...?

"We have to get out of here!" Came Olivia sounded very scared causing us all to look at her confused as she backed up and Lukas asked why. "You don't understand, this is a grinder!" At that moment water came pouring out of one of the tunnels pushing some skeletons over the edge and down into the pool of water where pistons suddenly crunched them into nothing. Oh my Notch! It was for controlling monsters and gathering loot from them with no effort and we were now standing in it.

"That means there's a loot room down there right?" Axel said a bit too happy for the situation he was in. We all gave him a look... "Just saying..."

Suddenly a hissing noise came from behind us and two Creepers appeared, me and Petra didn't even hesitate, both jumping to take one each with our swords, but then a third came from the darkness of the tunnel and exploded, thankfully, no one was hurt. It had blown a hole in the side and I looked down, the amulet glowing as I knelt by the edge. Water sounded followed by Creepers trying to get away, the hole stopped a lot of the water from pushing my friends down but the force of it caught me, I dropped the amulet and nearly fell with it but Axel caught me and pulled me back in time, and we watched as the amulet 'tinked' it's way down, bouncing from the sides of tunnels and coming to a rest about half way down.

"Was that...?" Olivia looked at me.

"The amulet, yes."

"Wait, are you going to jump?" She questioned me again.

"Jumping is easy, just, gotta make sure you can land." And jump I did, taking out my gold sword as there were monsters walking about on top of the tunnels. Petra came after me, taking out her stone sword, running in front and pushing a Creeper down, who blew up as it hit a tunnel. Everyone came down with us.

We were running across what looked like purpose build walk ways with stairs leading to the next one, another Creeper stood on a tunnel top and I told Petra that this one was mine. I ran down and hit it right into the side of a wall, it exploded and spiders came crawling out. None of us stuck around to welcome them and jumped across to the next walk way. Mobs were falling all around us, my friends split up, all going different directions trying to dodge them and the water so that they didn't fall down into the grinder part. I spotted Axel having a hard time with some zombies and jumped over, knocking one of the edge, he told me to duck as he hit one over me and it shared the same fate as it's friend. "Who wants more?" He shouted running off.

"You're asking for more?" He was crazy.

A skeleton was taking aim at Olivia who didn't have any weapons or weight to throw around like Axel, it noticed me coming to help, sliding down past an arrow it shot at me, I knocked it over the edge. The both of us carried on making our way down when I saw Lukas stood kicking a bunch of spiders, one saw me and launched at me, I dodged and jumped down to join him. Water poured over where we were stood and knocked us over the edge, we both somehow held on until the water, and spiders, were gone and crawled our way back up. I looked at Lukas, I didn't know about him but I was out of breath from this, we didn't get to rest any as Reuben's squeals came to me and I looked up to see him being chased by a bunch of zombies, me and Lukas ran to join him.  
I saw Petra just below me holding her own against a Creeper when another came from behind, jumping down I slammed it over the edge before it could explode on her, it slammed into another and they both went over. Result! Hearing a hissing noise from above, Creepers started tumbling down at us and no one hung around to deal with them; the four of us jumping out of the way, down to the next tunnel top. My jump ended with me landing on Lukas in a heap, we untangled ourselves and Lukas pointed to the amulet, it was far. Axel and Reuben were so close to it but then water and mobs rained down on their tunnel top, the water pushing the amulet down further and nearly over an edge, but I had to help my friends. Lukas looked at me and told me to go, he would get the amulet, I nodded to him and I jumped to them. Pushing mobs off edges, why fight when you have a massive long drop at your disposal?

"Get away from my pig!" I shouted at a zombie as I struck him down hard. Lukas saw and looked surprised by my anger at said zombie. You don't hurt my friends, end of story. That was when the world went sideways as water swept me off the edge with a Creeper. The grinder was coming on fast and my brain went to auto pilot, I reached for the Creeper, pushed it down and it exploded the grinder just in time for me to not be grinded by it. I hit the water looking up, amazed to be able to feel it and not be squished. My friends joined me, how kind of them to not leave me alone, but before we got a chance to swim up a force was pulling us down into pipes, no one could get away and we were all sucked down different ways.

* * *

I landed with a thud in a small, but long room, I heard Reuben squeal and then he landed on me, to which I was glad of because at least he was okay. Standing up I took in my surroundings; a few chests were about the room with glass columns and loot travelling up them, the floor also had glass sections where you could see loot going to wherever it was going to. Looking up there were chests inside minecarts moving along tracks to other sections of the building. The rest of the room was chiselled stone and stone bricks.

Suddenly everyone else came crashing down in the same way I did, they tried to gather themselves in moans and groans of being flung about when I noticed Axel was missing and asked, and as in to answer my question he came barrelling down and fell on Lukas again. I couldn't help myself and laughed, going over to help the both of them up.

"I knew you'd come for us. I owe you." Axel spoke to me, picking up Reuben,

"You don't owe me silly, you're my friend. I'm here to help you." I playfully hit his shoulder.

"There's something different about you Jesse, you're... Hold on hold on hold on!" Completely losing his minecart of thought, Axel had spotted what was going past below us, "This is where all the loot gets sorted, right? See that, things are starting to look up" And it shoved me out the way rather hardly, Olivia shook her head at him.

"That was cool what you did up there," Petra said coming to stand with me, "if we stick together, we'll be fine."

"You feeling any better?" It was a bit of a pointless question, but I wanted her to know that I was still thinking of her.

"Not even a little bit, and now I'm wet." She paused, "Everyone is looking to you to lead, well... Maybe not everyone" Petra gestured to Lukas who had the amulet, trying to follow the glow again. I just don't think he was used to someone else being the boss, and it's not like we sat down and voted or anything, it just, sorta happened.

"Any sign of Soren on there?" I called and moved over to him.

"He's close, he's got to be... This way!" He held the amulet to one end of the tunnel and it was indeed brighter. A clunking sound came from above us.

"I think the grinders packed up." Olivia speculated. A speculation which was bang on, considering we'd just blown bits of it up I wasn't surprised, a wave of water came down and I tried to push Lukas out the way but I was too late and we were knocked to the floor with monsters joining us. I shouted to everyone to keep moving, we couldn't hang around waiting for more to join us.

Axel had a spider jump at him, which he took care of, then another jumped onto his back, running over, I knocked it off. "I have had enough of this!" I yelled stabbing it with my anger, causing it to poof away, Axel kicked yet another spider and we ran to join the others, who had made it to the end of the tunnel and were stood by an End portal. I didn't see any other way out, that was when I noticed that Petra wasn't with us, turning back I saw she was having trouble with the mobs.  
I ran back, killing one zombie, spinning around and taking out another, then dodging an arrow to take out a skeleton. Grabbing Petra's hand I ran, pulling her with me. "I think I'm getting the hang of this. Let's go!" And jumped into the End portal without giving it a second thought.

* * *

Lukas was the second person to follow me through the portal, "Oh, great! It just keeps getting better."  
The End was a desolate place; a void of black sky, End stone, Obsidian blocks and nothing else. End stone formed the ground which floated with blackness all around, like a night sky, empty of stars. Obsidian spikes were dotted about. The Nether might not be the friendliest place, with it's fire and lava everywhere, but there were signs of life there. Compared, The End had nothing, and it was pretty cold. After jumping through you fell a tiny bit, no portal was above us to leave through. I nearly missed the mob grinder, nearly.

Axel was the last to come through the portal and of course, landed on poor Lukas again, the amulet bouncing from his hands. I was starting to think that it was on purpose. Lukas shoved him off crossly and put his hands to his eyes, was it hurt?

"Are you okay?" After I'd picked up the amulet I went and crouched in front of him.

"What? No, I'm not crying, just look." He pointed behind me, I barely turned around before looking back. Endermen, everywhere, hundreds of them, well this was their world I guess. We all dove for cover behind a spike. "So, what we do we call that? A 'herd' of Endermen? A flock, a swarm?"

"A crap ton of Endermen?" I joked to him, "but no, I think it's a haunting?"

"You might want to hold off on the grammar lessons until later." Olivia suggested, she asked me which way we were headed next so I took out the amulet, the white light flickered, so I tapped it, the light going out altogether.

"Stuff like that doesn't work in the Nether, probably doesn't work in The End either." Petra thought out loud.

"ahaha, great, woo, man. So we were trapped and now, we're lost!" Lukas said sounding like he was starting to crack, "We go from a death machine that nearly drowns us to here, The End. Heh, which is the right name for it since now, incredibly, we don't even know where we're going."

"Hey, at least we're alive, and well" I tried back at him, he looked to Petra and gave me a weak 'yeah' back. He was smart, I knew she wouldn't be able to hide it from him. "We just have to keep on truckin' until we get to Soren!"

"Face it Jesse, we might never find this guy."

"There is he." Axel said, interrupted Lukas and pointed to some stairs high up in the distance with a guy walking up them.

"Did that just happen? I can't believe that just happened!" I think we were all thinking along the same lines as Lukas there. Petra moved to take the front telling us to all follow her through the Endermen, but her determination was caught short by another wave of coughs. I was about to take the lead when Lukas stepped forward and looked at me. Ah, I see why he was being strange recently, he wanted to prove himself, do his bit, I felt bad for shooting him down now. I nodded and let him take the lead and with our eyes keeping to the ground, Lukas led us through the Endermen towards the stairs. If we looked at even one too much, in the wrong way or directly in the eyes, it would set off others around it and considering we had no where to properly hide right now... Yeah, let's not think about that happening. Endermen were very tall, black with purple eyes and fast, they could also teleport and were the only mobs that could move blocks about.

At the base of the stairs there was a strange altar type thing with what looked like a portal in the center, our way out I hoped. Everyone started to climb said stairs right away, Lukas hung back as I watched them go and thanked me for giving him a shot. I put an arm around his shoulder and pulled him with me, "You got this." I told him, trying to restore some self belief in him.

Axel came past me after a while, "I hope that some day, I love something as much as Soren seems to love stairs." He was out of breath, we all were. Looking down I thought to myself that if we fell, which we could since it was literally just stairs, no hand rails, nothing, we were dead. Everyone had carried on when I noticed Petra falling behind, I called to her,

"Keep up slow poke." I knew she would respond better to that then me offering a hand. Petra was a tough as nails sort of girl with fiery red hair that matched her fighting abilities.

My comment earned a laugh from her which I smiled at and we carried on up the stairs, Lukas and me shared a look, I knew he was suspicious and I wanted to tell him, I didn't like secrets and lies but I also did promise to Petra that I wouldn't say anything, stuck between obsidian and bedrock it seemed.

Axel, Reuben and Olivia were sat on a flat part between stairs complaining about the sheer number of them. I puffed, "There's a ladder." It was at the top of the next flight of stairs.

"Better not be a long one." Axel said to no one and slowly got up from the floor. I seconded that thought.

* * *

Luckily, it wasn't. I went first and pushed through the trap doors at the top into a 'room'... Wait, what?  
Lukas called up asking what I saw before they followed me, but I didn't know how to respond to that question, "I, uh, I think... What? I'm hallucinating, it's just so beautiful."

Around me was a room that looked like an outside. A blue sky with white clouds and a sun hovering in the center, green grass and trees, a river system with bridges and hills, it was like an untouched world, hard to think we were still in The End. My friends followed up the ladder and each in turn gained the same look I'm sure I was wearing. We made our way down a small hill, Axel tripping and falling on Lukas yet again, seriously dude? I moved over to touch a tree, "What in the... It's made of wool!? Everything, it's all wool."

"You're telling me," came Lukas sounding not too happy, picking up a block of wool, "we've been resting all our hopes on this guy, and the whole time he's been building some... Artificial happy land?

"He probably just misses home." I offered.

"If you miss home, you go and visit. You don't build an exact replica." Lukas had a point. But Soren was one of the greatest builders who had ever lived, some of his builds had to be a little, weird, like experiments. He threw the wool block away, "we came here for nothing." He started to walk away from the group.

"What's the matter, are you okay?" Something was clearly eating him.

"Just look around Jesse!" he yelled at me, "If the greatest builder of all time has spent years working on THIS, what're the chances that he'll even have that bomb, huh? I've had enough crazy for one day." Lukas was clearly done talking to us and stormed off.

"What's his problem?" Petra asked, and I wish I had the answer to that question for her. I concluded that we should just give him some space and see how to move on from here, as I wasn't seeing an exit.

A cloud shaped light pattern on the wall went off suddenly, huh? Olivia took Axel and Reuben to investigate and I stayed with Petra a little while, we sat down together.

"So, on a scale of 'ugh' to 'argh!' how are you feeling?"

"Somewhere in between, but I'm holding on." I was glad to hear she wasn't at 'argh!' yet.

"Well, this place is a little crazy, isn't it, like, the weirdest thing you've ever seen?"

"Actually no, I once saw a villager dig a big trench and fill it with like, a million carrots." I gave her a confused look but didn't ask any further questions about it, it sounded very strange indeed. We talked a little more about an assortment of things before I left her resting to see if Olivia had figured anything out.

Reuben was stood by some pink wool, just kinda starting at it. I gave him a pet and we did a little high five, which put a smile on my face. "I bet this wool feels pretty good under those trotters, doesn't it?" He made a satisfied noise and rubbed the ground with his feet, I'd have to look into getting some carpet or rugs for my treehouse for him when this was all over. I called over to Olivia from my spot on the floor, "found anything useful yet guys?"

"Well, we found that button, but it doesn't seem to do anything though." Olivia answered me back, pointing to a button under the funny light cloud.

"You both doing okay though?"

"Could be worse, could be better" Axel said indifferent, Olivia shrugged in agreement I think. Average was fine.

I left them pondering the button and went back to poking around. There was a fountain with real water not blue wool, I took a much needed drink, the water just as cold as the air, I forgot we were still in The End, it was easily done in here. I found an odd stage type thing, Soren had even created mini monsters from wool and monster heads, this guy was seeming stranger and stranger the closer we got to him, I mean, who lives in The End by choice? Not a completely sane person, he may be a few wheats short of a loaf, but he was our only hope at this point.

I looked to Lukas who was leaning against a tree away from everyone else with a face on, I sighed, time to see if I could cheer him up.

"What do you want?" Was the question he gave me when I walked over to him, and it wasn't said nicely either. I tried to not take it personally.

"Lukas." I tried, keeping my voice quiet, "no matter how upset you get, you've just gotta try and keep it together!"

"I know, I really do, it's just..." He sighed and I waited for him to gather himself before carrying on, "Listen, I know I've been a bit prickly, but... Jesse, I think somethings wrong, with Petra." I knew that he had caught onto something, "You have to of noticed..."

"... I, uh, I shouldn't say, it's not really my place, I wish I could though." I replied awkwardly, rubbing the back of my head and not making eye contact.

"Wait, talk about what? Jesse! If I'm right about this, you have to tell me. It's not fooling anyone, at least not me." He was right, I should say something, Petra had said that if she got any worse she would tell people, but I had a feeling that her toughness didn't want her to admit that to anyone.

I kept my voice low, "Petra is sick, Lukas." He stopped crossing his arms and looking all defensive.

"How long have you known?" He said to me softly.

I sighed, "A while. But she promised me not to tell anyone, I'm sorry! I wanted to say, I don't like hiding things but, it was promise..." I felt my lip quiver, I hope Petra could forgive me, "The Wither, we think it infected her with something."

He'd stopped leaning against the tree and moved to sit against the 'not hill' next to him. "So, everything I was worried about, it's all true? This is all my fault Jesse!" I sat on my knees next to him waiting for him to explain that further, but he didn't.

"No way this is because of you Lukas, what are you saying?"

"If I hadn't chocked, you would've been able to pull Petra out of that beam sooner."

"Hey," I said softly putting a hand to his shoulder, "for all we know, Petra didn't get sick until way after that. We don't know what happened between that and when she reached us." He gave me a look that didn't inspire confidence. "It's not your fault, really, but Petra is still with us, you could try making it up to her, if that would make you feel better about it?"

"You're right, but, if one of our best fighters is sick, then what chance do we have?"

"Hey, you have me!" I said standing and posing, giving him a cheesy grin that got a chuckle out of him. "If we stick together, we can do anything. Even things that seem impossible." I held out a hand to hep him up.

"It just seems extra impossible"

"Then we stick together extra hard." I gave him a hug, and I didn't know that I needed one either until it was happening. He hugged back, let out a sigh and thanked me. I could see it in his face that he was feeling better. "I should go and tell Petra that you know, you're right, we shouldn't keep secrets." I moved to leave but he grabbed my hand.

"Tell her the truth, that I figured it out. I don't want Petra thinking that you can't keep a promise, because you did."

"heh, sure. Thank you." He let go and I moved back over to Petra where she was leaning against a tree, looking sleepy. I crouched down next to her,

"Petra?"

"Hnn?"

"Lukas knows you're sick. I didn't break our promise! I think he's been suspicious for a while, it's one of the reason he's in a mood I think. People finding out their friends are keeping secrets... It's not a nice thing to find out."

She gave a defeated sigh, "I've been trying to hide it best I could, so not to cause a panic."

"I know, but everyone is here for you. You should tell Reuben, Axel and Olivia yourself, before they catch on. I know they'll be hurt more than Lukas is."

"... Maybe."

"Don't worry, we'll still think you're super tough, we all have off days."

"Heh, thanks Jesse. I guess I should tell them." Petra made no move to move. I gave her a small hug and told her to rest a bit then tell them. I think we all needed a break and while it was safe, we should do so. I went to go and let Axel, Olivia and Reuben know, even though Axel was already lying on the floor and Reuben was poking about with the pink wool still. Olivia was at the button wall, listening to it.

"You hear that?" She asked me, so I put my ear to it, it sounded as though there was music or someone talking behind it.

"Mhm, but how to get behind it. I'm guessing you've not found anything?"

"Not a wheat seed."

"Well, while we're safe and since we can't seem to figure out a way behind this, I've told Petra and Lukas we're having a little break..."

"That's more like it!" Called Axel from the floor.

"Not for long so don't get too comfy. I'm gonna look about this place in a bit more detail, okay?" Olivia nodded and I went back over the room, starting at the fountain.

* * *

Lukas POV

Jesse had gone and told Petra that I knew. I think I came off a bit harsh to Jesse, she was only trying to help each of us yet I knew I'd taken some of my frustration out on her, I made a note to apologize later. I watched her give Petra a hug and leave her sitting against a 'not tree', then go over to Olivia who was poking about by a wall, I was sure she was listening to it. Can you hear redstone?  
I shut my eyes for a moment, taking in the quiet, peacefulness while it was here. Once we found an exit, found Soren, I knew we'd have to actually find the Wither Storm. I chuckled to myself, what people in their right minds went looking for something like that, it was an odd sort of day. Jesse was poking about again and came closer to me in her search,

"So, what did Petra say?" I asked her. Jesse looked to Petra, then to me and sat down next to me. Sighing, she hugged her legs closer and rested her head against them with a shiver, I'd forgot about the coldness of The End.

"She's gonna tell the others when she's rested. Olivia's taking a look to try and figure out what that button does."

"I'm glad and I'm sure Olivia can figure it out." We were silent for a little while until she yawned.

"Tired?"

"I wasn't, until I sat down, on this soft comfy wool."

"Mm." It was super comfy in here, you could lie anywhere, even in a 'not tree' and it would be soft. Jesse hid her face in her knees and sighed again. She hadn't stopped being positive and keeping us altogether since, well, since the whole thing had started, it was impressive but also looking like it was starting to take it's toll.

I put a hand on her back, "you okay Jesse?" Had anyone asked her that this whole time? I looked at her worried, hoping that she would talk to me.

She didn't say anything for a moment, before looking up and taking a deep breath. "Yeah, I'm fine. Really. Just sleepy I think." She yawned again and rubbed an eye. "I think the last time I slept was in that tree house we build, and even then, it wasn't well. Hard to sleep after you've witnessed Wither Storms and the joys of the Nether." She had a point, "and anyway, I'm good if you're good now!"

"That's really cute." I said idly, playing with her hair, she blushed and looked away. I blinked out of my daze and took my hand away, coughing to cover up the awkwardness. "I.., uh, I mean, why don't you have a nap, or something?"

"s'too cold to sleep really." I thought for a moment, we couldn't start a fire, wool plus fire equals bad time. Ah, I know.

Leaning forward I took off my jacket and put it around her shoulders causing her to snap her head right towards me in question, I put my hands up in defence, "too keep the chill off." She stared right into my eyes and I held my breath, did I do something wrong? After what seemed like an eternity, she held the edges and pulled it around her, blushing and looking at the floor, she fidgeted her feet and muttered the quietest of thank yous. I just smiled at her and went back to leaning against the 'not hill'.  
We were silent after that, until I felt something on my shoulder, looking down I saw that she'd fallen asleep against me. To say I was shocked and embarrassed would be an understatement, but I left her be, I didn't want to move her, Jesse needed rest just as much as the rest of us, if not more.  
Minutes went past and all that I could hear was water slowly moving past and Jesse's slow breathing; she told me that Reuben wasn't allowed any more carrots and that no, Axel wasn't allowed to bring TNT inside her treehouse. Even in her dreams she was thinking about her friends, even if she was telling them off. I thought to myself that I didn't mind being stuck here right now and smiled, Olivia's voice took me out of that thought though, I think she was arguing with someone. I slowly tried to remove myself from Jesse and lie her down, covering her back up with my jacket, satisfied that she was still asleep I went to investigate.

* * *

Jesse POV

A noise pulled me from a sleep that I didn't know I had taken, it sounded like people. Yawning, sitting up and rubbing my eyes, I felt something slip off me. I looked to my lap to see Lukas's leather jacket there and then remembered, had I fallen asleep in his jacket next to him? Well this was embarrassing, I was sure I was beet red, but thinking of Lukas, where was he? He wasn't where I'd left him, Petra wasn't either actually. I looked past the 'not tree' next to me, over to where Reuben, Axel and Olivia had been, to see all of them stood there, voices were being raised. I held the jacket against me and started heading over to them.  
Olivia was the first to notice me approaching, which caused other heads to turn in my direction, I yawned again and rubbed my face, I was not awake it seemed,

"wha's goin' on?" I managed in my sleepy state. Lukas was stood closet to me with his arms crossed, Petra stood pretty well to my other side, her rest had helped a little it seemed. Reuben was still sitting against the pink wool, Olivia was tapping a foot and Axel had a slight hurt look on his face.

"Sorry to wake you up Jesse," Lukas said to me, "I was just saying how we should keep it down." He shot them all looks.

"Did you know about this Jesse?" Axel said to me as if that made any sense.

"You're gonna have to elaborate on that Axel."

"He's talking about Petra's sickness, which I totally get by the way, he also doesn't seem to understand why I'm angry." Olivia explained to me, again not going into detail about her own problem.

"And why is that?" I asked her, "and yes I did know about Petra. Before you bite my head off she promised me to not say anything and Petra is as much my friend as you are." Axel opened his mouth to protest but Lukas whispered 'don't' to him and he shut it again. I realised that came out a bit brash but hey, I'd just been woken up from the best sleep I'd had since the Storm, I knew I wasn't a happy bunny when I got woken up, let alone from people arguing and then blaming me for stuff that I didn't know you could be blamed for.

"See Axel? Just let it go, Petra didn't want to cause a panic, she explained!" Olivia said to him and I looked at Petra who just sighed at me giving me a 'told you so' look. I then noticed that the wall behind us, was open, leading into a room it seemed.

"Hey good job on figuring this out!" I gestured to the gap. This caused both Petra and Lukas to sigh together this time, did I put a foot in it?

"Well thank you!" Olivia said dramatically to me. "All I got from this one," She pointed at Axel, "Was an 'about time' after all he did was lie there, even when I asked him to help!"

"I can see why you're upset, but you're the best at this sort of thing 'Liv." I tried

That was met with a humpf and, "help or gratitude would of still been nice."

We were silent a moment, the second I was gone everything, or more like, everyone exploded. I'd had about enough of people falling out recently, I sighed and put my hand to my face.

Axel broke the silence, "Why do you have his jacket?"

"Because unlike you lot, he was concerned about me!" I shoved Lukas's jacket back to him, he took it and I stormed off into the opening.

* * *

I barely took in my surroundings; stone walls, a few tables and chairs, plants and bushes, a couple of indoor fountains, it was a long room and I stomped down most of it with Reuben at my heels, before making a right turn and heading towards the music. I opened a door which seemed like the most obvious choice and went inside, I couldn't see anyone inside.  
I sighed and looked down, Reuben oinked and nudged me with a trotter, I smiled and crouched down to give him a hug. "I'm okay, really. And I'll apologize, I promise."

"You don't need to apologize to anyone Jesse." I looked to see that Olivia was in the room and had shut the door behind her. "I should be the one to say sorry, I didn't mean to lose it. We were all a little stressed and needed to let it out I think."

"Heh, it's okay. All good now?"

"I think so, want me to help you look in here?"

"Sure, I'd like that."

The room was a sort of miss-mash of things. Paintings were on the walls, bookcases were scattered about, crafting tables and ovens were by the door, with plants growing to the left, there was something odd involving brewing stands at the far end by a set of iron doors and a couple of armour stands. The windows were purple stained glass and there was also a ladder at the far right, heading up to a second floor. What an odd room, I thought to myself, I noticed some records in frames on a wall and a jukebox between the plants and the brewing stands. Going over to see if they had anything useful to tell, Olivia spoke up,

"So, you and Lukas then... What's going on there?" She giggled at me. For all of Olivia's lack of confidence, she made up for it in mischievousness.

"What? Nothings going on. I was cold, he had a jacket." I shrugged her off, she was looking way too much into it.

"Mhm, if you say so." Olivia had moved to the other side of the room than me, noising at books while I played and listened the the records.

If these were indeed recorded by Soren then he was a strange fellow, one talked about pumpkin pie and another about Enderman love songs? The most important one though, told his findings on trying to get Endermen to work together to build things and considering we were in The End, home of Endermen, it made a lot of sense and along with what Olivia found in a chest, it only added to that. She had found a blueprint building plan, it was very simple; on your normal three by three crafting grid, you would place three cubes of clay to the most left in a line and then along the bottom to make an L shape, a sixth block was in the uppermost right. We both found it interesting but mostly insane, Soren would be in a lot of danger if he was seen by the Endermen, that was a big risk.  
That was until we looked at what was on the armour stand; a black costume, it looked just like an Enderman with it's purple eyes. The stand next to it was empty which meant Soren had to be wearing it we figured. Soren was outside with the Endermen right now and we needed him.  
I looked to the spare suit and around the room, seeing a few clay blocks and knowing what it was that I needed to do, even if Olivia didn't look so sure. So I put the Endermen suit on over my clothes and asked her how I looked.

"I don't think you want my honest opinion. But, how are you going to tell which one is Soren? Go up to each Enderman and ask, 'Hello, are you Soren?'"

"I'll be crafty." I said vaguely, giving her a cheesy smile. Olivia left to find the others after I, myself, left the safety of Soren's lab. Reuben made an attempt to come with me, but I told him to follow Olivia and that I would be okay, I couldn't have him getting hurt out there.

Nervous is a word I would use to describe how I was feeling, although it really doesn't cover to the exact extent of how absolutely terrified I was. One Enderman teleported right to me and stared at me, even though I was looking though little purple eye holes I still shut my eyes, more out of reflex than anything else. I guess he was okay with me, because he gave up and went back to standing about like Endermen do and I went back to trying to blend in.  
I was one clay block short but hoped that my plan would still work, that was until I saw one Enderman holding a clay block. I had to risk stealing it from him, so I crept up slowly and stood near him, he seemed to have no problem with me, I grabbed the block and started to pull it away, again, he didn't seem to mind, but then when I took the block completely from him, he looked at his hands and started to freak out a bit, this caused other Endermen around him to do the same and I knew I had to work fast.  
Soren had built a fake crafting table top, on a big scale, in the End Stone. Using my clay blocks, I build the shape I saw from the blueprint on the crafting table and prayed that he noticed my 'false' Enderman intelligence that I was showing.  
By the time I had finished, the Endermen were creeping closer to me, making the strange roar/growl noise that they do, I was in trouble. Then from out of nowhere, I could of sworn I heard one say that 'it had to work' and that he was sorry, but my brain wasn't working fast enough and a fist connected with me. Blackness.

"I don't think it'll bruise... Your face I mean."

A voice? I blinked my hazy eyes to see Reuben's face all up close in mine, my head was a bit fuzzy and was I back inside? I don't remember coming back in, so add disorientated to that list. I was still wearing to Enderman suit, I pulled off the mask.

"Those suits were built with durability in mind." Came the voice again, a man's. Sitting up and having Reuben take to my lap, I took notice that the empty armour stand was now full. I blinked about again and my eyes finally came to rest on a man, the owner of the voice I guessed.

"You must be Soren!" He had ginger hair and beard to match, his eyes were dark, maybe super dark blue? He was sat across from me in a black long sleeve t-shirt with shoulder and forearm silver metal guards, light brown trousers and shoes, again with the silver guards on his shins and to finish a short light brown waist coat, that I was sure was just pockets sewn together.

"Well, I am, but must I be? Sometimes I don't know if I want to be." He paused, "Sometimes I'd prefer to be anything but Soren, Like a donkey for example." Okay... Huh? I wasn't conscious enough for more ramblings, I gave my face a rub to try and get my brain working.

"I need your help", that was a good first try I thought.

"I just did!" Soren exclaimed

"You hit me. Hard and in the face."

"You upset the Endermen and I got you to safety." Okay he had a point, things would of turned out a lot worse if he didn't step in. "By the way, as far an introductions are concerned, this is not going very well."

"We're in danger!" I tried again

"Oh, what else is new? Whatever your issue is, whatever your problem. It has occurred before and has been solved before." I very much doubted that. The overworld would of still been talking about a Wither Storm like this for generations to come. By this point he had risen from the floor and gone to look out the window, "even so, what do you need me for?"

"I need Soren the hero, we need you to save the world, please! There's a Wither Storm on the loose and I need your help."

"Ah I see, you misspoke. You don't need me, you need my stuff." He turned to me, not looking to happy. "I've found that when you give people what they want, they turn on you." He walked passed me, pacing the room a little.

"Soren... Had someone done that before? I'm sorry, I promise I would never do that." And I honestly wouldn't, what a horrible thing to do to a person. I was standing now and moved a little closer to him.

"... I prefer Endermen. They always do what you expect, almost to a fault."

"I'm sorry I tricked you Soren, really, but I needed your attention." I felt bad for ruining his Enderman experiment now, I fidgeted a little.

"Well, you have it now." Soren said, finally facing me.

I took a moment, trying to think of what to say next, "Gabriel asked me to reassemble the Order of the Stone."

"The Order of the Stone... They asked for me?" Why did he sound so surprised by this?

"Well, Gabriel is your friend" I tried, but he didn't sound so convinced.

"Hmm... I don't know. Does he ever talk about me?"

Well this was awkward, yes he did, but I'd only know Gabriel for moments before... "Uhh, sure!" I tried smiling at him.

"What kinds of things do they say?"

Think fast brain... "That... You were the best of them!"

"Well that's very nice to hear" Soren paused, "What about you? Are you my friend?"

"Of course! Oh, I haven't introduced myself yet either, I'm Jesse and this little guy is Reuben." Said pig gave an oink.

"That's the best thing I've heard in years!" He exclaimed throwing his arms about, "admittedly, it's not a very high bar..." Soren came over and placed a hand on my back, "Don't worry, I'm going to help you... Because that's what friends do. Before we leave I'm going to give my old friends a gift." Then he walked over to the purple windows before announcing, "the gift of song!" Um, what? I gave him a quizzical look and I had the feeling I would be giving him that a lot, Reuben followed my thoughts. The Endermen were all stood looking into the windows by this point, I didn't have much time to think about it though as Soren burst into song,

"Gary may seem scary but he's a swell guy, Sally dilly dallies, but give her credit, she tries. They might look the same to the untrained eyeeeee!"

"What's happening?"

"But that's a lie, and so I say..." Soren did get to finish his song and Lukas burst into the room, I was thankful for that and as I looked to him he wore the same expression I was. All I could do was laugh a little at this timing.

"Wait a second, is that... Are you?" I think confusion had the best of him. Everyone else came following on behind, Olivia had finally found them it seemed, just how big was this place?

"Soren!" Olivia said loudly. While they all stood about gawking at him, Lukas came to my side and tugged at my arm, moving me away from Soren and closer to him. I could only guess because he was unsure about Soren? Which meant he was trying to keep me safe? The thought of it made me blush a little, Petra introduced herself coughing, which brought me out of my thoughts thankfully.

"You look... Terrible" Soren said walking up to her and she really did. Petra was so pale now, to say she was sheet white wouldn't be far from the truth and her eyes had bags even though she'd only just had a nap. Her arm was covered up so I couldn't see the purple mark, but I bet it was a lot worse now. She suddenly hid her eyes, I was going to ask what was wrong until she whispered and pointed, Endermen, they were inside Soren's lab and more were teleporting in, we all shielded our eyes. They were not happy and one even opened it's mouth to roar at us, but they didn't attack.

"You've upset them!" Soren said, a little anger in his voice. "You've altered their behaviour." None of us argued with him, happy to leave the room.

Now here's something we didn't anticipate, more Endermen were in the rest of Soren's place.

"I wasn't expecting so many house guests." Soren said as he joined me in the main corridor, everyone else had followed my lead out of the Lab and hidden themselves behind whatever they could, "there's no way I have enough sea shell soaps for all of them." I don't think Soren saw the bigger picture right away...

"How are we going to get out of here?" Lukas asked, "we need a plan and not our usual 'we'll come up with a plan when we have to OH WAIT now we have to' kind of plan" Olivia told him to quiet it down in the form of shh's.

As I looked at him it hit me, tugging at his sleeve I pulled him a little closer, "Do you remember back with those columns, when we fell down and when we fell into the water? The Endermen didn't follow us." Lukas looked to the room and then followed my thought immediately.

"Naturally," came Soren, "Endermen hate water... Oh! If we could force the fountains to overflow somehow..." He had caught my minecart of thought as well it seemed. "Jesse, you still have the Enderman suit, with that on you'll be able to safely reach the fountain."  
I looked at everyone nervously and with a sigh, put the mask back on. Axel gave me a good luck and Soren told me that they'd wait back, where it was safe he then told me to try not to die, he didn't really need to add that last bit.  
Slowly making my way towards the fountain in the center of this part of the long room, I made sure to keep a close eye on where the closest Endermen were, which was close, and kept my head down so to avoid any eye contact, I knew that I didn't have to in this suit but I wasn't fully convinced. After I'd destroyed the sides of the first fountain and the water had chased away all of the Endermen to higher ground, I called my friends to join me before heading to the next. One Enderman teleported right in front of me, and for a moment I thought it seemed like he knew what I was up to, I stayed still and silent for a while until he moved on, then made quick work of the second.  
My friends all ran past me back the way we came, the fake outside made of wool, but they'd all stopped in the doorway, keeping their heads low still, oh no. I made my way past them all only to find that the 'outside' was full of Endermen as well.

"They're everywhere, how are we supposed to get through this?" Lukas whispered from behind me, that was a good question. The exit, the trapdoors, were at the other end of the 'room' and there were a lot of Endermen between us and them.

"Everyone hold onto me, like in a line. I'll guide us through them!" It was the only plan that I had and I didn't think that anything else was going to come to me. So taking up the lead with; Lukas behind me, one hand holding onto my shoulder and eyes closed then Axel, Olivia, Soren and Petra at the back, with each of them was doing the same, I started to make my way forward slowly.  
The Endermen noticed us straight away but only watched, they didn't seem angry by us being there, so long as no one made eye contact, I thought, we'd probably be safe, that was until we were nearly over one of the bridges that spanned a narrow stream of water, an Enderman teleported in front of me and I stepped back out of reflex. He brought his face down, staring right into my eyes. "This guys right in my face." I whispered back to everyone and shut my eyes in hopes that it might help and for what felt like the longest moment in my whole life, nothing happened. Risking a peak, I saw that he was moving his face away and standing back up straight but I was still holding my breath. Then he roared, which set off all the others. "Quick! Into the water!" I shouted and started to break the fence railing apart and everyone dived in. I had no idea what to do now but then Soren spoke up,

"Oh! When I constructed this place, I worried about how flammable my building material was. So I built a fire suppression system to prevent the whole thing from going up in flames!" He was moving through the stream and pointed towards the 'outside' fountain.

"Soo... There's more water?"

"Much more? If we could activated it could disperse all these Endermen while we swim to safety."

"Can we get to the controls from here?" That was the main problem, we couldn't risk not being in the water right now, or at least everyone but me. Soren told me that lever was at the top of the fountain, of course it was, no where simple and easy to reach. I climbed out of the stream and up the ladder to the top. The Endermen were still roaring away all around me but none of them had made a move to kill me, yet I thought quickly so not to jinx myself. Reaching the top I didn't hesitate to throw the lever, around the 'room' things clunked and thunked and the motions of which caused me to fall from the top of the fountain, luckily the floor was already covered in water, neck height, and it was rising fast. No one wasted any time and swam towards the now underwater trap doors. Endermen were too busy retreating to higher ground to pay any attention to us although they were still roaring. I took a deep breath when I reached the other side of the 'room' and dove down, following after my friends. Lukas was holding the trap door open while everyone swam through when he pointed behind me, Petra was struggling in her weakened condition, I spun around and swam towards her, grabbing and pulling her to me, I started to swim back. I only just made it in time before running out of air.

Going down four zillion flights of stairs is much easier then going up don't you know? We made our way back to that strange altar portal in no time and exited through it. The portal spat us back through into the loot room under the grinder. Lukas ran over to help Petra up while I was getting my own self to my feet and taking off the Enderman mask.

"We made it!" Everyone had the same happy yet slight astonished face on. We'd defied so many odds but our biggest was still ahead, the Wither Storm. Petra called out and pointed towards the main part of the loot room. Monsters. "Oh come on!" I cried in aspiration. We just couldn't catch a break.

I knocked back and killed a zombie then dove for cover as to skeletons took up aim at me with their bows, we didn't have enough weapons for this. I was stood behind the wall one side of the arch way and Soren was across by the other. "Not that this isn't a ton of fun" I called over to him, "but let's grab that Formidi-bomb and get out of here."

"One small problem. Tiny really, minuscule. I haven't actually built it yet" Soren explained to me as he was holding back and killing a zombie.

"That's a small problem!?" I yelled back.

"You seem like a person who appreciates cool stuff that's cool for no reason." Soren said to me not giving me time to cover from the 'haven't actually built it yet' dilemma.

"uhh, thanks?"

"Pull that lever." He called across, pointing to inside the arch. I could just about reach it without having to expose myself, so I pulled it. "Hold onto your socks, 'cause they're about to be blown off!" I hadn't noticed the T shaped iron stacks in the loot room until pumpkins came from the ceiling, landing on them and turning them into Iron Golems. "Go to work, boys." Soren said calmly. There were so many of them, big tall creatures made entirely from solid Iron. Monster started flying around, poofing into smoke all over the room. One Golem even caught a spider, threw it over his shoulder while another used a zombie like a bat and hit into it more monsters. We all stood about the arch way, so glad that they were on our side this time and that Soren had had the foresight to build these. They easily cleared the room for us.

"That was pretty cool." I said coming to stand by Soren.

"I wouldn't lie to you Jesse." He replied back, "oh no, wait a minuet, I would. I _didn't_ lie to you, that's what I meant." And then he walked off, ordering the Golems on what to do next for him and leaving me with a puzzled look on my face. Lukas came behind me, patting me on the back and I turned to him with my confused face which just made him laugh and walk off. We all followed Soren to the main part of the loot room, where the water had sucked us up and brought us to before.

"Guy, do you hear that?" Axel asked.

"Hear what?" I replied.

"All that stuff whispering 'take me. Take me now.'" He answered back putting his arms in the air.

"I think it's saying... 'Olivia should get to take more than Axel'" Olivia said in a spooky voice. Had they not remembered last time Axel stole something?

"I know this is cool, but we just need the ingredients to make the Formidi-bomb." Axel and Olivia turned to me with Axel responding to me,

"The loot says you're wrong."

"I'll just fetch the super TNT," Soren interjected, "it's right up there." He continued, pointing to some chests on a ledge. I asked him how he was going to get up there as I couldn't see any steps or ladders. The response I received was; "Oh I have my ways." Followed by one Golem climbing on top another to form a makeshift ladder, which Soren quickly climbed up. He reached the top and called down to us, "Feel free to help yourselves. Just make sure to keep you're eyes open fr that gun powder we'll need to make the Formidi-bomb." Axel and Olivia dashed about the room at that, I guess if he said it was okay I wasn't going to stop them, but me personally, I wouldn't be joining them.

I set myself the task of finding the gun-powder and I found four pieces in the very first chest I looked in. Olivia was behind me rooting through another chest, "Have you found any gun-powder?" I asked walking over and sitting on a step beside her.

"None in here, hey what do you think? It would be really handy to have some glowstone dust BUT it would be really cool to have some spiders-eyes..."

"Take both? Soren did say we could help ourselves." I offered her, she grinned back at me and pocketed both. I noticed Axel, who was sitting between chests on a step looking glum. I pushed myself up and went to see why him, out of everyone, wasn't cramming his pockets. "Are you in paradise or what?"

"Honestly, I'm more in 'what' right now. All this power went straight to my head and then I got a head rush, and now I'm too overwhelmed to take anything." I tried my hardest not to smile at his silliness.

"Stay strong Axel."

"I'll try..."

Petra was sat a little away from everyone else not looking to great again, Lukas was stood with her. I knew telling everyone was the best idea, we could all support her now, even if she didn't like to be fussed over. Blue eyes caught my green ones as I was looking over, the person they belong to shook his head. I gave Axel a pat on the shoulder before going to see how bad things were. I sat next to Petra and put an arm around her,

"It's gotten really bad," Lukas started, "part of me is hoping that when we bomb the Wither Storm this sickness will just... Dissipate."

"That's exactly what I was thinking! You know what they say about great minds don't you?"

"Fingers cross, right?"

"Toes too!" Petra looked at me and chuckled a little. I gave her a reassuring squeeze as Reuben trotted over to me and sat himself down next to me with a huff. "Just because everyone else is grabbing stuff, doesn't mean you have to." I gave him a pat with my free hand then told him to stay with Petra while I looked for the rest of the gun-powder.

I tried a couple of chests, finding various items before then finding another four pieces of gun-powder, that now made eight in total, was that enough?  
There was a button next to some minecart tracks, I pressed it guessing it would bring some forward and give us a way out. It did just that, the end of the loot room opened up with tracks leading off into a tunnel and four minecarts. Not enough for all of us, but we'd squeeze in. I went to Soren to see if I had enough gun-powder, I did.

"And this, is my super TNT." He said holding up what looked like a normal TNT, only it looked to shine and sparkle on the inside.

"Wait," Said Olivia, "but I thought the super TNT was the Formidi-bomb?"

"Of course not! They're completely different words, aren't they?" Soren answered a bit rudely causing Olivia to look embarrassed. I kept the conversation going to help her,

"Let's build us a Formidi-bomb then... How do we do that then?"

"The crafting recipe is quite simple really; Super TNT in the middle and gun-powder all around." I nodded to him to say I understood and made to grab the super TNT, "no, no, no, no, the ingredients are highly unstable, even putting them in close proximity to each other is a risk!" Soren explained backing away from me.

"Well, at least we have all of the ingredients. Progress!"

"And now that we have them... We... I literally don't remember." Soren said honestly.

"We go destroy that Wither Storm." I reminded him.

Suddenly an Enderman teleported into the room and we all turned away.

"Oh dear..." Soren started, "I was afraid of this, with The End underwater, the Endermen will try to escape. Of course! To the minecarts everyone!" And to them we did, "I've been waiting ages to say that, to people, I mean..."

Axel jumped in the back one and Olivia in the front of him, I helped Petra in to share Olivia's so that she was with someone. Reuben was trying his hardest to climb into the front one but he just wasn't big enough, I let my inner self squeal at how adorable his defeated face looked. "So you want this one then?" He oinked at me, I picked him up in my arms and noticed Lukas, "you in first." he blinked at me as if I'd just asked him to go and kick one of the Endermen. "in the minecart... I'll sit in front...?" Soren, hearing this, made himself at home in the second cart, "or you could stay with the Endermen." I could see him mentally shake himself and climb in. Axel took up a whole cart and no offence to Soren but he was a little odd, so that left us sharing. I squeezed myself in front of him with Reuben still in my arms, "see, I'm not that big, and Reuben's a tiny piglet."

"What? No... I didn't mean..." I laughed at his awkwardness as we started to move, the minecarts hit some power rails and we shot forward at speeds I'd never seen minecarts achieve. The force of which sent me slamming backwards into Lukas. I tired to pull myself forward but it just wasn't happening, I shouted over the minecart rattling on the tracks that I was sorry and hoped I wasn't crushing him. "I'm right here" said a voice right next to my ear, "it's okay, you're not heavy" I turned my face a little and his was right there, I turned mine back fast as I'm sure I was blushing, but why? Was it because I fell asleep in his jacket earlier? That had to be it I told myself, Reuben squeaked at me and I realised I was hugging, more like crushing him. Telling him I was sorry I remained hugging him tightly and thought that Petra and Olivia must be in the same situation. I would turn back to look but I was too embarrassed.

* * *

There was a light at the end of the tunnel finally, or well, it wasn't as dark as the tunnel is more correct. We hadn't been moving long but at how fast we were going it made me wonder where we were now, I wasn't in my thought long as in front of us was a Creeper on the tracks. Our minecart hit it full on causing it to poof and us to be sent flying before I had any time to prepare. The carts behind left the tunnel in exactly the same way. I held Reuben tight and tried to turn to the side to shield him, it worked but my left arm hit the ground hard, I knew it was going to be grazed enough to draw blood. Considering me and Lukas had merged into one being due to the speed of our journal, he flew out of the cart with me and we landed in a heap of tangled confusion together.

I didn't move, "Am I dead?..." I felt Reuben try and wiggle free, so I guess we weren't. Letting him go, I peaked an eye open only to find Lukas's face right next to mine. He was above me, which was to be expected considering he was behind me in the cart. His face was red as I'm sure mine was, neither of us moved for what felt like a long time until Ellegaard's voice made us snap out of it,

"There you are!"

"So glad you could make it" added a Magnus from somewhere as well.

Lukas got off me quickly and helped me up, we both um'd and er'd a bit until he noticed my arm, "your arm. It's bleeding..." He reached a hand out towards it but didn't quite touch it, I followed his hand with my eyes to my arm which was indeed, bleeding.

"I hit the ground trying to protect Reuben. He's not injured so I'm not bothered." I shrugged him off, it wasn't that bad, sure it stung a little but it would heal up fast enough. I thought I heard him say something along the lines of 'I should of gone first in the cart' but it was so quiet that I couldn't be sure. I was all of a sudden aware of the sheer amount of monsters running past us and that Ellegaard and Magnus were busy fighting them, giving myself a mental shake down, I drew my gold sword and ran to join them. "Thank goodness you're okay!" I was so glad that they were here and, from a quick look, they looked pretty good.

"This looks like 'okay' to you?" Magnus snapped back at me. The three of us stood back to back ready to take down monsters but none of them seemed all that interested in us. All running in the same direction and part of me felt like I should be too.

"I thought Ivor was coming to you?"

"Ivor? We haven't even seen him" Ellegaard told me. That was odd, where was he then? More importantly, what was he up to?

A Creeper came running at us and exploded, sending me backwards but otherwise unharmed. Lukas helped me up and asked to the group what was going on.

"You don't have to worry about the monster.s.." Soren answered, "they're running away. Worry about what they're running away from." He pointed to the sky and in it was a massive black shape, floating above everything with giant tentacles. How I hadn't noticed it before was beyond me, I must have been very distracted... The thought made me blush but I couldn't quite place why.  
The Wither Storm had double doubled in size, maybe doubled again. You could see it's three heads scanning for more things to hoover up.

"I feel like that got bigger." Axel said absently.

"It did." Olivia replied plainly.

"Soren?" Questioned Ellegaard, finally noticing her old friend. They greeted each other but it didn't get much further as the Storm roared, it had spotted us. Soren stood on a slight platform. We were by what looked like a barn for horses.

"It's time to go, we only get one shot at this" He announced to us all. After everything we had gone through, after coming this far, through the Nether and The End, we were finally here, ready to take down the Storm. "Remember, once the Formidi-bomb is crafted, it'll explode in a matter of seconds. It means whoever is doing the crafting, will be in great danger." He paused to let that sink in, "I was hoping, perhaps, we could... Draw straws?" None of the Order stepped forward, they all came up with excuses, what was this? They were supposed to be heroes... And there was no way I was letting any of my friends do it.

"I'll do it." I said to Soren

"That's what I was hoping for." He replied back, stepping down and handing me the Super TNT, I pocketed it. "The rest of us will be distractions in it's path. Hopefully it will buy you some time."

"You should be ashamed of yourselves." Petra said to them. I knew it hurt her as well, not being able to help more. Magnus and Ellegaard hung there heads.

Ellegaard stepped towards me, "Jesse, take my armour. It'll help."

"Nah, you can take mine, it's gotten me out of a lot of jams" Magnus said, also stepping forward. After a thought, I picked Ellegaard's, it was designed to fit women after all.

"Jesse, you deserve this. What you're doing means we're all gonna DIE!" I don't think Ellegaard meant that last bit but she was startled by the Storm roaring again, louder, closer. I changed my Enderman suit for Ellegaard's amour and had a little moment to myself for the fact that I was wearing one of the Order's actual armours, this thing had seen battle and it was about to see more. We all grouped and ran towards the Storm.

"Jesse," Soren said as he ran next to me, "you're going to need to put down a crafting table out there and make that Formidi-bomb." I nodded to him, I knew what I was doing. "Everyone else, grab a buddy and split up! We need to keep that Wither Storm on track, so build, build, build!" As he, and everyone else, split from me, Soren shouted back the recipe. "Jesse, don't forget. Super TNT in the middle and gun-powder all around."  
After they had split and started to build various things I wasn't paying mind to, I sprinted towards the Storm, I need to be right under it for maximum effect. Oddly, I wasn't scared as I ran towards the giant black shape with three heads and purple beams that sucked up the world, I dodged trees and bits of ground knowing what I had to do, no fear in me. This creature was going down, I didn't want my world destroyed so this thing had to go, it was as simple as that. One objective and nothing was going to stop me.  
I set my crafting table down close and places the Super TNT in the middle, then found the powder, but before I could put down the final piece a purple beam found me and sucked me, the crafting table and the materials up.

"No, no, no, not yet!" I said as I began to float up towards it. A piece of gun-powder floated by me and I grabbed it, I wasn't going to give up. I 'swam' about in the beam, collecting everything, dodging a big tree coming right for me and as I dodged I saw a tentacle hit Magnus and Ellegaard, they both went flying, Ellegaard into a tree and I called out. No! I was wearing her armour, would she be okay? I held my breath and got back to 'swimming' towards the crafting table. I placed everything down and the whole thing, including the table, turned into a giant piece of TNT but with 'F' on that side. I held onto it and span about in the beam, pointing the Formidi-bomb at the head that had me in the beam, "EAT THIS!" I shouted as I pushed the bomb towards it, then I wasn't moving up any more, I looked back and saw my friends had hooked me with a fishing pole and were pulling me to safety. The bomb was right next to it's face when it exploded but the force still sent me flying backwards and then all I can remember is white.

There was ringing, definitely something ringing... Or was I underwater? Really far away? Or maybe all three. I tried to sit up but everything felt heavy, I opened my eyes to blurriness and all my friends gathered around me, they were talking but I couldn't hear them. Behind, I saw a black shape slam to the ground, followed by another. They all looked at it and then back to me, noticing that I was awake, Olivia and Lukas helped me sit up and said something to me again, I furrowed my eyebrows and shock my head at them.

"WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" I heard myself say that, this was odd. The power of the blast must of temporarily deafened me. My eyes opened wide, the bomb, that's right, I made the Formidi-bomb and sent it towards the Wither Storm. I stumbled to stand and ran over to the bits of black littering the ground. My friends behind me,

"Jesse, are you okay?" I heard 'Liv say and I turned to her.

"I... Think so? I'm a bit dazed... Wait, I heard that! I can hear!" I gathered her into a hug that she return. There was still a ringing but I was sure that would go away over time as well.

"Is it over?" Axel asked as we looked at the carnage.

"I can't believe it's... actually dead." Olivia said, realising me so that Axel could have a hug.

"You did it Jesse, you actually did it!" Lukas was next in line for hugs.

"That sounded like you doubted me." I pulled away giving him a pretend sulky face and then we laughed.

"ahaha, handled like a champ!" Magnus stood the other side of Lukas, I gave him a hug as well, even if he was reluctant to give one back. I saw Petra standing by Axel who was keeping her upright, I gave her a hug,

"now the Storm is dead, your sickness will start to go away. I'm sure!" She agreed with me and returned the hug. I heard oinks and Reuben pushed through to me and I gathered him up, spinning him about and giving him the biggest hug I could give. "Thank you for saving my life guys." I said to everyone, "I thought I was... But I'm not!" They all gave me 'anytime's and 'of course's.

"Anyone seen Soren and Ellegaard?" Olivia asked and we all looked about and I put Reuben back on the ground. I spotted them by a tree, bits of fire scattered about from the Storm, Ellegaard was lying in Soren's arms... Oh no. I ran to them, knelling down beside her, everyone followed.

"You fought valiantly, my friend." Soren said softly to her.

"You and I both know, my fight.. Is over." Ellegaard was having trouble speaking, her words were laboured and her breathing already unsteady.

"Stuff and nonsense, stuff and nonsense." He said trying calm to her, "save your strength Ellegaard, we'll take care of this. We'll take care of you." She looked at him knowing there was nothing that could be done, and then to me,

"Jesse..."

"Ellegaard?"

"My armour... Really suit you... I want you to keep it, okay?"

I took up her hand in mine, "no Ellegaard, this armour belongs to you."

"You... Earned it... Jesse." What could I say back? I knew that she wasn't going to be all right but I just couldn't let my self completely believe that. Ellegaard turned to Soren,

"At least I... Finally got to be... A real hero... Right?" He couldn't reply to whatever that meant and just hung his head.

There were noises and groans behind us, I turned to see people, real live people, coming out from the remains of the Wither. Storm and I knew some of them! I didn't know how but they were still alive, it was a miracle.

"All those people, they're alive. The Wither Storm didn't kill them!"

"Jesse..." Ellegaard spoke to me softly, "those people. You have to help them... All of them."

"Of course I'll save them." I gave her hand a squeeze, "every last one of them."

Ellegaard never said anything else after that, her hand going lax in mine and her eyes closed, she had died. I lowered my head in respect for a moment and Magnus came to stand by me. No one said anything and I think, despite their differences, Magnus and Ellegaard did care for each other, I couldn't imagine how him and Soren were feeling right now, losing such a long time friend.  
I took Magnus's hand with my free one and tugged gently to bring him down, then transferred Ellegaard's to his, I gave him a pat on the back and stood, not wanting to be in the way. They deserved some time to themselves.

"Come one Reuben, we've got a job to do." I turned to my friends and we all moved away. Shock and numbness were clear favourites among emotions being felt right now. "You guys, help these people. I'll head to the Storm and find anyone who might be trapped." They all looked at me, eye's glossy, no one really home, but each of them nodded and followed my order. I took a deep breath in and put everything to one corner of my mind, I'd mourn Ellegaard after I'd kept my promise to save everyone.

Bits of tentacle and debris were trapping many people around the Storm and Reuben helped me find lots of them. He was such a good friend, I definitely wouldn't of made it this far without him to keep my spirits up. I rounded a corner of Storm debris wall and...  
"No, the Command Block? That's impossible!" There it was, just above me between what looked like the ribcage of the Storm. From this distance it looked intact, not a singe mark on it, "I don't understand. Soren said that the Formidi-bomb would destroy it, but it looks perfectly fine." It buzzed and burst into life, the colours shining in the middle, "Guys! Over hereee... No no no!" A force had grabbed me and was pulling me towards the block, there was nothing I could do as it started pulling me back, nothing to hold onto, Reuben had no hands and my friends who did were too far away to here me. "Someone help!" I shouted as loud as I could as my feet left the ground, what would happen if I came into contact with the Command Block? Luckily, I didn't have to find out as two hands grabbed mine and pulled me out, I gasped in shock at who's they were... "Gabriel? But I... You were... Dead?" I stammered getting to my feet.

"What... What happened here?"

"I'll explain everything, just not right now." I heard a roar that sounded a lot like the Storm and sure enough it started to come back to life. A head rose up behind the Command Block, the ribcage fixed itself and blocks started to reform it's body. The Wither Storm started to rise higher into the sky and then things got worse. How you might think? Well, the other two heads were no longer attached to the main body, they were their own Storms now, three separate Storms. Blocks started to form tentacles and roars could be heard as they continued to pick up pieces of the world around us. "C'mon, we've got to get out of here!" I shouted to Gabriel over the noise of the Storm and turned to run, but he didn't follow me. "Gabriel, let's go!"

He turned to me and then I saw it, his skin was no longer a chocolate colour, it was pale and his eyes were red, Wither sickness? Well I guess he was in the Storm for a very long time, then he said something that stopped me in my tracks,

"Who's Gabriel?"


	5. S1E4: A Block and a Hard Place

**Episode Four: A Block and a Hard Place.**

* * *

Jesse POV

"Where... Where am I? What's going on?" Gabriel asked me looking around, not at all in a hurry to run from the three Wither Storms forming above us.  
Did he really not know who he was? Another scary thought was that would Petra end up like this too?

"We need to get out of here!" I tried again, this was no time to be stood about idly.

"Who are you?" He asked me.

"Jesse! Jesse! Where are you?" I heard Axel shouting from somewhere behind me. I grabbed Gabriel's hand and pulled him with me, we'd fill in his gaps later. I called to Axel and waved as we made it to him.

"No way, no way! You found Gabriel?"

"Who's Gabriel?" Said Gabriel, he definitely wasn't messing about. The Storms roared and started to grow extra heads each; three heads to each Storm? Lovely.

"Come on, we need to go!" I reminded everyone, Axel nodded and ran, leading us behind a small flat-sided hill.

"Jesse! You made it!" Olivia said giving me a hug, while everyone noticed that a Gabriel was also now present.  
We didn't stick around, everyone was together and decided that Gabriel catch up's could wait until we weren't in impending doom.

As we ran away, Endermen moved towards the Storms. "Those Endermen are running the wrong way. They'll be killed!" Soren said, stopping behind a tree. I know he had a soft spot for them but this was not the time. Lukas stopped with me and we asked what it was that he was doing, "I can't stand by and watch... I'd be condemning them to death!"

"Stop staring and get a move on!" I said, tugging at his arm.

"I can't just abandon them... Not after a lifetime of study."

"Your head's going to be abandoning your body if you don't turn around and run!" We'd find him more Endermen once the world was safe. As if to emphasize the importance of us running, one of the Storm's heads shot a fireball which hit the tree we were standind under and Soren got the message.  
Monsters, horses and people were running everywhere, this was like a horrible deja vu of back at Endercon when the Storm first formed. Once was too much, so twice was just plain awful.

"Jesse!" Shouted Lukas from behind me, "they're falling behind." He pointed towards Axel who was helping Petra, they were barely moving.

"Axel! You gotta move faster!" I shouted over to him.

"She's too sick. This is the best that we can do!" He called back making his way over to us.

"They're not going to be able to out run it, we've got to find a way to move faster!" Lukas said to me, but how? My mind was working in overtime when I heard a horse whinny and dodge a patch of fire.

"Everybody, horses!" I ran up to a white one that was bucking and kicking, scared out of it's mind. I grabbed it's reins and calmed it down enough to be able to climb on, I'd never been on a horse before so this was going to be interesting. My friends all followed suit, grabbing and mounting a horse, but we were two short, with Petra and Gabriel not having one.

"Come on Jesse, we'll take the reins and they can just hang on." Lukas called, moving his horse easily next to mine.

"Errr... I'll take Petra." I'd left her behind once, that was not going to happen again if I could help it.

"Then I've got Gabriel." We helped them up onto our horses, Petra sitting behind me holding onto my waist.

Lukas nudged his horse into a run and I copied him, "I've never done this before." I told him trying to keep the horse running next to his.

"Running from three Wither Storms on a horse? Me either." I'm glad he was seeing the amusing side this time, I saw him smile cheekily at me before he instructed me, "Just move the reins where you want to go and give him a nudge when you want to go faster."

"Faster?" I thought that this was faster enough but then after turning and looking at the Storms thought, scratch that.  
We weren't making a lot of progress but at least we were together with; me and Petra, Axel had Reuben and was horse sharing with Olivia, Magnus and Soren sharing behind me and then Lukas and Gabriel to my right. Monsters were getting in the way of the horses, also running for their lives and I knew I'd have to do this one-handed. I drew my gold sword and got ready to knock them out of the way. Lukas shouted to everyone to follow him and he took the lead. For a moment, my mind thought that maybe he was taking the lead because he knew I had no idea what I was doing on a horse and he was being thoughtful, but I never gave it any more thought as the Storms gained my attention back.

"Pick up the pace or we're done for!" Petra shouted in my ear.

"First time on a horse here!" I shouted back. I was steering with one hand while my other held a sword trying to knock monsters out of the way, dodging fireballs and fire left by those fireballs. I thought I was doing a good job, that was until the ground ahead of us began being sucked up by the Storms and left a gap that I couldn't avoid. The horse went into jump mode itself and landed the other side with a thud, then sped off once more. I'm sure I was making a face and that this would be okay if not for the Storms and such. I added horse riding to my list of things to learn.  
I continued to jump gaps, dodge beams, tentacles, fire and monsters. Petra then commented that I had excellent horsemanship, I didn't even know that what I was doing had a name, but I took it. Endermen were being sucked up in the beams around us, it was as though that's what they wanted.  
"There, we need to ride over that... Bridge." A fireball destroyed said bridge, that was spanning a deep valley, before we could ride over it. There was no where left to run to.

"Jesse! Look out!" Lukas called to me as an Enderman teleported in front of me. Luckily, he was caught in a beam and hoovered up and around us, other Endermen were pulling blocks from the Storm's tentacles, the Storms responded to this by roaring and halting their advance. I looked towards them to see Endermen on the Storms themselves, ripping blocks from it.

"The Endermen," came Soren's voice, "they're slowing it down."

"So I am seeing this?" I queried him.

"Endermen move blocks, it's what they do." Soren told me from behind Magnus.

"Guys come on!" Shouted Olivia who was stood by the valley with some blocks and Axel.

"We gotta build a new one, like right now!" Axel explained and everyone got off their horses expect for Gabriel and Petra who were too sick, and we built ourselves a new bridge.  
The Endermen kept the Storm busy long enough for us to put a lot of distance between it and us.

* * *

It was very dark by the time we sort shelter and even after hours of riding, we could still see the Storms in the distance, but we all needed to rest.  
We had found a small cave in the side of a short mountain, it gave us a good view of our surroundings, but mainly the Storms. It was snowing ever so lightly and I still had on Ellegaard armour. We gathered some materials; enough to fence in the horses in the mouth of the cave and make a few torches to light our temporary habitat. We lit a fire and cooked what food we had found in the short time we searched, which wasn't a lot.  
No one said a word, not just out of sheer exhaustion, but also because of what had just happened. Why had the Formidi-bomb not worked? And what were we supposed to do against three Storms, when we couldn't even stop one? A little bit of hopelessness was definitely in the air and you could cut the atmosphere with a broken shovel, we all wanted to talk, to let it out, but I don't think anyone could form words, instead, we sat about the cave, lost in our own thoughts for quite some time.

"Jesse," Lukas said quietly and tugged me to one side.

"Lukas?"

"Gabriel was saying some pretty weird stuff back on that horse."

"He might have Wither sickness." Petra whispered, joining in our conversation.

"I don't know," Lukas look worried and said to her, "you never acted the way he's been acting."

"I'll go and talk to him." I told them. I thought back to when Gabriel had saved me from the Command Block, he kept saying he didn't know who Gabriel even was, I was worried as well.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" He was leaning against the back of the cave with my friends opposite them.

"I... I'm afraid I don't feel much like myself at the moment." Was Gabriel's response to my question, but if he really didn't know who he was, how did he know that? His skin was still a sickly pale chocolate, his eyes still red as well. I didn't know what to do, how to help him and that really hurt me.

"Gabriel!?" Came Soren from behind me, "It really is you!" Oh, I'd forgotten that they hadn't had a chance to notice him yet.

"They told us you'd kick it!" Magnus came to join us, putting a hand on Gabriel's shoulder, but he backed away, not sure what was going on.

"Wha... Who are you people?"

"It's me, Magnus."

"Old friend, don't you recognize us?" Soren's voice was just audible, clearly upset by that news.

"The Wither Storm did something to him, he doesn't know me either." I told the two.

"You mean that thing we just rode on?" Gabriel asked in confusion.

"No... That was a horse." I explained.

"You... You're the one who rescued me," Gabriel directed to me and stepped closer. I think because of the fact I 'rescued' him, he now found some sense of safety in me and if that's what he needed as reassurance then I'd try my best for him. "Tell me please, what is going on?"

"Up until a while ago, we all thought you were..." I stumbled over my words, I couldn't really say we thought he was dead... "Trapped! Trapped by the Wither Storm. But don't worry, you're safe with friends now."

He took a moment before speaking, "It was dark, and foul, I was sure I was a goner."

"Well, you aren't." Soren told him and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "You made it back alive. Which is more than I can say for some of us."

"Oh man, Ellie." Magnus said weakly, "For a second, I almost managed to forget." Sadness returned to him and Soren.

"You guys talking about Ellegaard?" Lukas said quietly, joining in.

"I just can't believe she's gone, it doesn't feel real." Olivia spoke absently, standing with Axel at her side. Out of those who weren't members of the Order, I knew Olivia would be hurting the most, Ellegaard was her idol and had also, not long ago, agreed to take her on as her assistant. We were all quiet for a moment,

"How? How could this of happened?" Soren's words held a little anger, but it wasn't like we wanted it to of happened, getting angry would solve nothing.

"She'd want us to keep fighting, no matter what." I tried to curve around his anger.

"In fact, she'd tell us that we had to." Olivia chipped in.

"You're right, she would." That seemed to cheer Magnus up a bit, his voice didn't hold complete defeat now at least.

"Grahh!" Came Soren suddenly and he started pacing, "Being emotional is getting us nowhere! What I want to know is, what happened out there today? Why is that thing still alive?" I was pretty sure that we all wanted to know the answers to those questions. He came right into my face, clearly blaming me, "My instructions were simple! You were the one in the middle of everything, what went wrong?"

"It was your Formidi-bomb that failed, you tell me!" I would take some responsibility, but it wasn't my creation, I only set the thing off.

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, it ripped the Wither Storm apart, but it didn't make a dent in the Command Block." I explained to him, no one knew yet that the Formidi-bomb hadn't done a single thing to the Command Block.

"So the Command Block is still out there? Oh great! And now, to make matters worse, we've gone from one Wither Storm - to three!" He was still being angry but had now gone back to pacing instead of being in my face, "Our plan was a total failure. I should of cast the foul thing thing into the abyss."

"We just need a new plan, that's all. The question is though, what?"

"Why are you asking me? Am I expected to know every last thing in the universe?" Well, I thought to myself, you are our best shot right now Soren. He sighed, "I need a moment to think." And then exited the cave.  
Lukas went to head after him but I caught his arm. I thought it was best to honour Soren and give him that moment to think.

"Is he always like this?" Gabriel questioned Magnus.

"You have NO idea." Was the answer he received. In a strange turn of events, the king of Boom Town was now the most sane out of the Order; Gabriel didn't know who he even was, Soren was angry at me for his plan not working and Ivor had created the Wither Storm in the first place.

"That jacket, I recognize it." Gabriel said and came over to me and Lukas.

"Lukas always wears that jacket." I told him, was he finally remembering something?

"No... There were other people wearing that very same jacket when I was thrown from the monster!" Gabriel explained. My heart sank at him not remembering but then I realized what he was saying, Lukas's friends, the other Ocelots, were alive and out there too. Of course, you can only imagine what hearing this news did to Lukas. "Guh... It hurts to just think about it." Gabriel finished and held his head.

"Hey, hey, it's okay." Magnus comforted his friends and led him back to the back of the cave.

"Jesse... If what Gabriel said is true..." Lukas spoke to me, wanting to confirm what we had just heard.

"Your friends could still be out there!" I grabbed his shoulders and gave him an excited shake. Sure, I didn't get on with them but I didn't hate them either, it took a lot for me to hate someone. I was happy for Lukas, that his friends hadn't become victims of the Storm like I was sure a lot of people had.

"I know! Which means... I've gotta go after them!" He brushed off my hands and turned, walking to a chest in the room. Wait, that wasn't what I meant, sure we could go and look for them, but not only was it night time and monsters were about, but there were three Wither Storms now which could be seen in the distance, it was far too dangerous to go off on your own. I was about to go to him, to stop or go with him, when Petra suddenly collapsed, saying she was dizzy, Axel caught her and helped her to the floor.

"Still not feeing any better?" I knew it was a stupid question to ask in the first place, but I had to start somewhere.

"'Better' is relative. If I just sit here and don't move... Or breath... It's 'almost' bearable." Petra explained to me. She was sat in a little alcove on the entrance side of the cave, Axel and Olivia were next to her and Reuben a little to my side.

"Man, if it wasn't for Ivor, she wouldn't even be like this." Axel said from his crouched position next to her.

"That's... Not exactly true." Petra said back to him, "Ivor built the Wither, sure, but he couldn't of done it without the skull I gave him."

"Hey, it's not your fault"

"But if it wasn't for me then..."

"Ivor wouldn't of wanted revenge on the Order? Oh, I think he would of. Petra," I said softly, coming down to her level and taking her hand, "It's not your fault, okay?", I wasn't going to let her feel blame for this.

"Still, I'm going to do everything I can to make this right." There was fight in those words so I knew Petra was still herself and not giving up to the sickness. That made me smile.

"Petra, I know this isn't easy to hear but," it was Olivia's turn to crouch down, "you're too sick to be going anywhere."

"I'm not that sick!"

"Maybe you should rest in this cave," Axel suggested, "I mean it's safe, defensible..."

"If I said I'm fine, I'm..." And as if to prove her wrong, a wave of coughing didn't let Petra finish her statement.

"If you try to keep going, I'm afraid you're not gonna make it." Olivia said rather glumly.

"Petra," I said standing, "you need to keep fighting. There's no time to sit around relaxing in some cave."

"Thanks Jesse, knew you'd understand." Petra was right, I did. My friends didn't look so sure but I knew Petra wasn't some wussy lightweight and that she also didn't like to be treated as such. She was a good friend and I would help her in the way that she needed it. "Just... Gimme a little time to catch my breath and I'll be fine."

"This is a bad idea Jesse." Axel told me.

"Yeah, well, it's Petra's call to make." I told him right back. Everyone was silent for a little while until Reuben oinked at me, I asked how he was and gave him a little pet and hug, he was doing just fine. The piglet, was the one that was fine while the rest of us we're falling apart.

"Not gonna lie man, we've pulled through worse." I overheard Magnus tell Gabriel.

"Have we?" Things weren't looking too much brighter for them it seemed, I went to investigate. "Tell me Jesse, who is this person?" Gabriel asked me as I approached. "He keeps insulting me. One minute I think I'm talking to a friend and the next, I'm being made fun off." I tried to hide my laugh with my hand, it was very hard I have to admit. Magnus was just that sort of person. The two of them were stood opposite Petra's group and I think Magnus had been trying to help him remember things, with little success it seemed.

"That's Magnus. Everyone knows Magnus!" I tried.

"Magnus... Hmm. And how do I know him exactly?"

"He's your friend and he's BEEN your friend for a very long time."

"Really?"

"It isn't working. He doesn't remember." Magnus said sounding pretty upset, of which I think he was allowed to be.

"Talk to him about your past, something that only you would know maybe?"

"Like what?" Why was Magnus asking me? I barely knew them when you got down to it.

"Tell him about the Ender dragon."

"No, no, no, no, anything but that."

"Come on, it's what you're famous for."

"Well, all right then." Magnus gave me a defeated sigh, I couldn't understand why he didn't want to share the greatest moment of their lives and the most amazing legend the world had, but I didn't question it, "the Ender dragon, you see, it was huge, and dangerous, and for a while there, it looked like we were goners, but you know who stepped in and killed that thing?"

"Was it Jesse?" Gabriel answered. Ha, no it wasn't. But man, I would of given anything to of been there.

"Huh, no. It was you man, you killed it." Magnus gave Gabriel's shoulder a pat.

"Oh. Thank you for sharing that with me." He smiled to Magnus. I don't think he remembered but hopefully at some point the cogs would line up and he would. "And Jesse, thank you too. You've been a big help here, I need to repay your kindness."

"Not at all Gabriel. I'm glad I could help you, that's enough for me."

"I still want to repay you somehow," Gabriel didn't give me a chance to respond as he asked Magnus to tell him more about the 'Inder' dragon... I smiled and let it slide, leaving Magnus to try and fill in all the many missing pieces in Gabriel's head.

I turned to see Lukas, finishing routing about in the chest and heading to the entrance of the cave with the horses, I remembered that he planned on leaving, how could I forget? "Lukas, what are you doing?"

"I told you, I'm going after my friends." Was the matter of fact response I received, but I knew that, I meant, was he crazy? Thinking of going off on his own. "I thought the other Ocelots were dead... But if they're not, I need to go and find them."

"What if Gabriel's wrong? He isn't exactly himself right now. You can't just leave Lukas, you're part of our team."

"And you saying that just reminds me that I left my team." I opened my mouth to say something but then closed it, he did have a point, I would be doing the same in his shoes right now. Lukas left the cave to stand outside and I followed, "Look, you and me we've made a pretty good team so far, so I hope you'll understand that I need to go and help my old team."

We were standing to the left of the entrance, just us and the light snow that was still falling, but I couldn't feel it. I was too busy worrying about my friends to even register the cold.  
Soren had come this way earlier but was no where to be seen, what could be seen however were the Wither Storms, three ominous black shapes in the sky with purple beams scanning the land. "But we are helping them. Saving the world helps them too!"

"Isn't that just... Kinda abstract?"

"Not at all, the number one thing you can do for them is to make sure we beat those Storms." When he didn't reply I took up one of his hands in mine. "If you really want to, if I can't change your mind, at least let me come with you. I can grab Reuben and..."

"Jesse... You really mean that?"

"Of course, you're an important person to me now Lukas, please stay, we need you." He didn't say anything again, I lowered my head not wanting him to see how upset I was becoming, my voice was small, echoing how I was feeling, "we're in this together. Wh... Whatever happens next, there's no way I... we can do it wi... without you." We were silent, it seemed like I really wasn't going to chance his mind, I sighed inwardly and held back a sniffle, but as I let go of his hand he grabbed it again and a little bit of hope was restored in me.  
I went to lift my head to look at him but his free hand found my cheek and did that for me, my own free hand followed his and I held it against my cheek, the warmness of his hands reminded my body of how cold snow was and I shivered, I might of still been wearing Ellegaard's armour, but armour is metal... For a moment, neither of us said anything but I had to know what he was thinking right now, I couldn't read him. "Lukas, I ju... mhff" I didn't get to finish that sentence as he cut me off, with a kiss.  
My eyes went wide as my mind went blank, I couldn't, I didn't react. Lukas was... A moment passed by before he went to break it and that's when my brain caught up and I realized that I didn't want him to, my hand left his that was on my cheek, found the back of his neck and pulled him back down. It was his turn to be taken back but it didn't last long.  
For that single moment there was nothing but Lukas. No one was sick or dying, no one had amnesia and the world wasn't ending. It felt like time had stopped, I couldn't feel the snow landing on me or hear the roars of the Storms in the distance. He brought us closer so our bodies touched, being a little shorter then him I had to lean my head up, my hand left his neck and rested on a shoulder. It was a simple kiss, nothing over the top, but I felt a haze come over my senses that I didn't understand. This wasn't my first kiss but it was the first time I felt my very soul being stolen.  
Both of us broke away at the same time. Lukas stared right into my eyes and brushed his fingers over my cheek, I suddenly felt ridiculously shy, so I buried my face in his chest.

"Jess, are you...?" His voice was barely above a whisper.

"I'm hiding." He laughed at me. The hand that was on my cheek was now in my hair, stroking it and our others were still holding, at some point we'd locked fingers apparently.

His head was right next to mine, his mouth right by my ear when he said, "that's adorable." The low tone in his voice made me shudder.

I closed my eyes and neither of us said a word, the only sound I could hear was the two of us breathing, the only things I could feel were; his leather jacket, his hand in mine and the other stroking my hair.  
We stayed like that for what felt like an hour but what was probably only a few minuets, until I heard little sad squeals that I knew belonged to Reuben. I lifted my head from Lukas's chest just in time to see Reuben come dashing from the cave and run a little ways down. The outside of the cave had a small, flat walkway type deal going on, Reuben was stood by an edge, looking out to the Storms with sad eyes, then he sat and looked down.

"Go on." I heard a voice say which belonged to Lukas. I turned to look at him, he smiled and repeated himself, letting go of my hand and turning me round to face in Reuben's direction. I had wanted to ask if I could go and see what was wrong, but I didn't know how to ask without it sounding like I was trying to escape, because I wasn't.

I walked over slowly, crouching down beside my best friend.

* * *

Cave hideout: Lukas POV

So we'd managed to escape from the now Three Wither Storms, I would say safely but I didn't want to jinx ourselves. We'd already taken a massive lose in the form of Ellegaard, it was hard to believe one of the members of the Order was now dead.  
Somehow Jesse had found Gabriel in the mess of the Storm before it re-assembled itself but he'd lost his memory it seemed, that was until Soren stormed out after blaming Jesse for his Formidi-bomb not working and as I went to follow, she stopped me and Gabriel saw and recognized my Ocelot jacket, unfortunately it wasn't him remembering meeting me before but rather him saying that he saw others wearing the same jacket as he escaped the Storm. He took a turn and Magnus came to take him further into the cave, but my mind was still stuck on what Gabriel had said, Jesse was stood next to me and I wanted to know if she had heard the same thing that I had, "Jesse... If what Gabriel said is true..."

"Your friends could still be out there!" Her voice was excited and I knew that I had heard correctly by the way she grabbed and shock me, although I couldn't quite understand why she was excited by that news, had she forgotten that they didn't get along?

"I know! Which means... I've gotta go after them!" I took her hands from me and went to search in the chest we had, to see if we had anything useful.  
It turns out, we didn't. Giving up with that I decided to check on the horses, to see if any of them were rested enough to head back out, that was when Jesse joined me and asked what I was doing. "I told you, I'm going after my friends." That had come out a lot meaner than I had wanted it to, I was annoyed at myself for not trying harder for the Ocelots and that annoyance came out at Jesse. I sighed and tried again, "I thought the other Ocelots were dead... But if they're not, I need to go and find them."

"What if Gabriel's wrong? He isn't exactly himself right now. You can't just leave Lukas, you're part of our team."

"And you saying that just reminds me that I left my team." I saw her point I really did, but I couldn't not go and search for them, not after hearing that they might be or were still alive. I left the cave and she followed after me, I didn't want to cause the already not well among us any more troubles so left to talk more privately, not far, just to the left of the cave entrance. It was still snowing lightly and you could see the Storms in the distance. Unfortunately, that was where my friends were most luckily to be, I wouldn't search right under the Storms, just in the vicinity. "Look, you and me we've made a pretty good team so far, so I hope you'll understand that I need to go and help my old team." I tried explaining.

"But we are helping them. Saving the world helps them too!"

"Isn't that just... Kinda abstract?"

"Not at all, the number one thing you can do for them is to make sure we beat those Storms." Jesse wasn't wrong in thinking that, and if I did find my friends then I was coming right back to help again. I couldn't find an answer for her, everything I could think of sounded like she wasn't my friend, that I didn't think she was important. I was a little taken back with myself in thinking that, but I gave it a second thought and came to the same conclusion so I guess it was true. Not liking my silence, Jesse took my hand and tried a different tactic. "If you really want to, if I can't change your mind, at least let me come with you. I can grab Reuben and..."

"Jesse... You really mean that?"

"Of course, you're an important person to me now Lukas, please stay, we need you."

The Ocelots weren't her friends and they had been nothing but mean to her, Aiden had even set Reuben on fire, nearly, and here she was, saying she would risk her life to help me find them. Her kindness had struck something with me a long time ago but it was hard to believe someone like her existed and after hearing that she would go to such lengths to help a friend, to help me, I found myself not wanting her to, I didn't want her getting herself hurt trying to help me, I would feel awful.  
I guess I was silent for too long, as Jesse hung her head in defeat, she spoke, her voice quiet and catching in her throat,

"We're in this together. Wh... Whatever happens next, there's no way I... we can do it wi... without you."

The way she sounded, the way she was over me wanting to leave broke my heart a little, I hadn't meant to, I hadn't realized that it would effect her so much. I was trying to find the right words to say to her when she gave up and let go of my hand, before I could think I took it again, as if to say 'don't give up on me'. I was sure I heard her sniff back tears, I would feel awful if I had made Jesse cry, I put my free hand to her cheek and lifted her head to face me, she wasn't crying, there was hope in her eyes that maybe since I took her hand back that she had got me to see reason.  
Her hand went to mine that was on her cheek, as if to reassure herself that it was there, that I was still there. She was cold to the touch and I felt her shiver.  
We didn't move or say anything for a while and then that feeling came over me again, the one I had back in Soren's wool world when Jesse fell asleep against me and nothing else mattered, not the world ending or Petra's sickness, just a calm sense of peacefulness and this time I understood the reason behind it.

"Lukas, I ju..."

When I heard her say my name I couldn't help it, I kissed her.  
I felt Jesse freeze up, which to be fair I should of expected. Between what I had just been feeling and what I'd just done, I knew I felt something for her, but when she never unfroze I pulled away, thinking that I had overestimated the moment, that was when it was her turn to take me by surprise and she moved her hand from mine that was on her cheek to my neck and pulled me back in. Her eyes were shut, clearly sure that she was doing what she wanted and I didn't question it.  
I shut my own, everything around me felt so far away, like we had all the time in the world to be here in this moment and that the world would wait for us. I didn't like the space between us, so fixed it and Jesse moved her hand to my shoulder. I moved our held hands so that our fingers tangled together.  
I knew that I wasn't going anywhere now, not without her, and that was the single thought on my mind as we ended the kiss together.

I stared right into her emerald eyes, dazed, it felt like if I looked away she might disappear, all of a sudden she buried herself into my shoulder. Was she okay? She didn't regret it did she?

"Jess, are you...?" My voice was barely a whisper and I don't know why I didn't call her Jesse then, but I didn't and I liked the way it sounded. I went to put the hand that was on her cheek on her hair but stopped, thinking that maybe she wouldn't like it if she did regret it, but then thought again that if she did then she wouldn't be buried in me still holding my hand? Then I thought that I was over-thinking things and did it anyway.

"I'm hiding." She answered me which just made me laugh, here I was worried I'd done something wrong when she was just being shy, I really was over-thinking things.

I stroked her hair for some reason, my head was resting against hers when I told her that she was being adorable by hiding like this and I felt her shiver again. I knew we should of gone inside or that I should of given her my jacket again but I didn't want to move and ruin the moment.  
After a while of debating things in my head again, Reuben came out squealing and in a hurry about himself. Jesse stirred and looked towards him, he was upset about something and I knew she wanted to go over, but it seemed like she didn't want to ruin the moment either, or at least, I let myself believe that.

"Go on" I said, knowing her she was in conflict over whether or not to stay with me or go to him, so I made the decision for her. Jesse looked at me, clearly asking if it was okay which just made me smile at her. I repeated myself and turned her in his direction, she went and sat by him. I took a couple of steps closer but didn't want to intrude.

"Don't run off on me, okay?" Oink "Yeah, but this isn't like the last time." Reuben squeaked something to Jesse, "Petra didn't mean it, she's just not herself." Oink "Yeah, I wish she would get better as well."  
As she sat and spoke with him, a thought crossed my mind, how was she doing that? Sure people could understand animals, but Jess clearly understood each exact word he was saying, or well, oinking.  
"The world needs us Reuben. So much of it has already been reduced to bedrock, and it's up to us to save the rest of it" He oinked and she gave him a pat, "Well maybe that is a lot of pressure for just a person and a pig, but... We have to find a way."  
That's when she caught me watching out of the corner of her eye, "Lukas?"

"Oh uh, sorry. I just... Was wondering how you understood him, like can you speak pig?"

She looked at me like I'd asked something in a foreign language and then burst out laughing. "Ahahaha, of course not."

"Then how?" I blinked back.

"Reuben is my best friend, of course I can understand him." Said piglet gave a justified oink. Of course, that was such a Jesse answer, I felt a bit silly asking now. She opened her mouth to say something else but someone shouting cut her off,

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

"Just as you 'helped' us once before?" Replied the voice it was arguing with. "There are three of those things now!"

"You say that like it's my fault!"

"It IS your fault."

Me and Jesse exchanged looks and she got up from her place by on the ground. The voices were coming from just down the flat we were standing on. We crept along, came to a ladder and climbed it to find Soren and Ivor arguing,

"Soren, you need to listen to me."

"Oh, what good has ever come of that?"

"What are you doing here, Ivor?" Jess asked, wasting no time in getting in his face. "Come to lock us in another room?"

"I came to offer my help."

"Bah! He's been following us." Soren chipped in.

"It's not like that, you need to hear me out! What you don't understand is, you are all in grave danger."

"Obviously!" Soren all but shouted, beating me and Jess to the line.

"No, I mean specifically this group." We all gave him quizzical looks, "The Wither Storm isn't acting randomly, it's following Gabriel."

"What!?" Jesse blurted out.

"You see... I may have programmed it... To follow his amulet."

"Did you also know that I was the one he gave the amulet to?" Jesse explained, pulling said amulet out. All the colours, except red, were glowing brightly.

"Ivor, you fool. You've created a monster that's following Jesse, and it's only getting stronger." Soren shouted at him as she put the amulet away. Crossing one arm over her chest and with the other she chewed a finger, Jesse's eyes found the ground and she stared at it with the look of complete shock and worry, as one would after being told that three Wither Storms were after you specifically.  
I put an arm around her, pulled her close and she leaned in. Jesse wasn't going to face those Storms alone

"You don't think I realize that? Nothing can stop those things. Nothing even hurts them." Ivor shot right back at Soren.

"Well... Except Endermen." Jesse said, sounding a little dazed. Ivor questioned her but Soren agreed,

"The Wither's gaze passed over them and they went wild."

"We actually just saw a bunch of Endermen pull blocks off the Wither Storm." Jesse had seemed to of pulled herself together enough that she wasn't leaning against me but that didn't mean I was going to move my arm from her.

"Enough of them working together might be able to destroy a Wither Storm entirely." Soren was jumping to conclusions there a little bit, but I saw his logic.

"Could you coordinate them somehow, make them all attack at once?" Jesse asked him.

"If I know my Endermen, and I do, all we'd need to do in get them into the Storm's vicinity." Soren had begun pacing around now, "In fact, there's probably more than enough of them still in my fortress... An unintended side effect of you flooding The End.

"This is just like the old days Soren, you and your crazy ideas..." Ivor wasn't agreeing with the plan it seemed.

"Hush Ivor for once!" Soren commanded, and even Ivor looked surprised by that. "The question is, how to bring the Storms and the Endermen together..."

"Well we know for a fact the the Storms are following the amulet, what if we used that to bring them to your fortress, where the Endermen are?" Jesse said that so quickly that I had to believe that she'd already thought of it before Soren had even asked the question. Soren agreed with her, naturally.

"Just one problem, you're forgetting about the Command Block." And Ivor brought the plan crashing back down. The Formidi-bomb plan hadn't completely failed, we just weren't expecting the Command Block to survive.

"Oh, yes." Soren sighed at him. "It's clear now that no weapon can destroy it, not even a Formidi-bomb."

"Actually... I may have a solution to that." Why Ivor waited until now to tell us all that was probably the question on everyone's minds. "You see, when I first took possession of the Command Block..."

"You mean stole it." Soren corrected him.

"... Yes well, I created a fail safe."

"IVOR! How could you keep this a secret?" I think both me and Soren agreed with Jesse there, of whom took a step closer to him.

"Oh, believe you me, keeping secrets is easy. Anyway, I made something, an enchanting book, one that contains the very power of the Command Block itself. Use it to enchant a weapon and you'll be able to smash the Command block to pieces, forever."

"Yes, yes that's it! It could very well solve all our problems." Soren replied.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go get that book!" Jesse said rather excitedly. For a moment it looked like we had an actual plan, that was until Ivor spoke again,

"Just one problem. It's at my secret lab, which is sort of... Far away."

"How are could it possibly be?" She asked him.

"Let's just say it's the farthest place a person can travel before being utterly..." A roar from one of the Wither Storms cut Ivor off, after exchanging looks we all headed down the ladder and back towards the cave entrance, where everyone had come out to investigate themselves.

"I can't believe it found us so quickly." Petra was the first to speak. The Storms were closing the distance between us fast, we'd have to start moving within the hour to stay ahead of them.

"We need to leave, now." Jesse stepped forward, back into her role of reason and leadership. "There's a reason it's been following us. Ivor says its because of the amulet that Gabriel..."

"Ivor! It is you!" Magnus said completely interrupting Jess, he then came to stand right in front of Ivor.

"Good to see you too, Magnus."

"Hello, my name is Gabriel." He'd followed Magnus over and extended a hand to Ivor, who wore a look of such confusion it was hard not to laugh.

"Somebody pinch me."

"Anyway..." Jesse tried again, trying to keep people on track and took out the amulet as if to reinforce the plan, "Ivor figured out that the Wither Storms are drawn to the amulet. So we're going to lure them back to Soren's fortress where all the Endermen are, since we saw them actually tear blocks from the Storm before, and destroy the Command Block with an enchanted super weapon."

"You figured all that out just now?" Olivia questioned.

"The point is, we need to get moving. We aren't safe. Not as long as we have that amulet." Ivor reminded everyone. We were all silent for a moment, just staring at the amulet.

"I'll take it." Axel said as he snatched it from Jesse's hands.

"There's no way I can let you do that Axel." She tried to grab it back from him but he just held it above her reach.

"You don't understand, I'm not asking." And he pocketed it.

"But you'll have three Wither Storms chasing you, wherever you go." Olivia squeaked, worried for her friend.

"If things get too intense, I'll duck into the Nether or something... I'm tired of always being the selfish one. You just go and make that super weapon, I'll meet you back at Soren's fortress." It was plain to see that Jesse didn't like this idea but it also wasn't looking like Axel was going to budge on it. I guess he'd been doing some thinking about himself since the Storm and realized that perhaps his behaviour needed some improvements. I wasn't going to lie, I thought it did too.

"Well Axel shouldn't have to do this alone, I'm coming with you man." Magnus offered and as a big fan of his, Axel was happy about that news.

"Jesse, I'm going with him too. Like you said, I need to keep fighting." Petra decided.

"Well, I'm going with Jesse. I pledged to help and that's what I must do." Even without his memory, Gabriel still had honour.

Jess had been silent this whole time, all her friends deciding that they wanted to be decoys for the Storm was obviously a lot for her to take in, but she must of known that she couldn't decline and take on the Storms on her own. Reuben gave her leg a nudge and she looked down, he must of restored something in her as she took a deep breath and spoke,

"Everyone, take good care of yourselves." We passed that sentiment around as the group heading to Ivor's secret lab went to gather the horses.

* * *

Jesse POV

I was not happy about Axel taking the amulet and us splitting up from them. It wasn't that I didn't trust him, that I didn't have faith he would succeed, Axel was the single most stubborn person I'd ever met I knew that he wouldn't lose. I just, I couldn't forgive myself if something were to happen, something unexpected and he got hurt or worse, that included Petra of course. Sure I wanted her to keep on fighting, unfortunately it was her decision and as much as I'd rather have her come with us, I had to listen to what she wanted to do, needed to do. Even Magnus, in all his oddities, was my friend now, even if he was one of the great Order, these Wither Storms were much more than an Ender dragon it seemed.  
I stood by my white horse, petting it for a moment, trying to keep strong for my friends.

"You don't like this plan, do you Jess?" It was Lukas, his concern meant that I wasn't doing a very good job of hiding my feelings.

"No I do, it makes sense. It's just, I... Well... You know." If he did know then he clearly understood my mess of a brain better than me.

"Yeah, I know." I looked to him and then the ground, not out of awkwardness but more out of the fact that I didn't know what to do with myself. I'd hadn't felt so unsure of anything since this all started.  
Lukas drew me into an unexpected hug that I didn't know I needed and I hugged back, hands on his upper back and hiding my face in a shoulder. It was suddenly very hard to not cry and that was all I could focus on trying not to do. After a moment with my eyes closed, I sighed, finding myself being okay with being unsure, like I didn't have to be strong all of the time, I wasn't alone. 'It's going to be okay', I said to myself.

"It will be, trust me." Lukas replied, moving back to look at me. I'd said that out loud hadn't I? I looked into his eyes finding nothing but certainty there, he moved a hand to my chin and lifted my face to his,

"Jesse?" I'd never hated Olivia before, but right then I felt something close to it. Lukas just chuckled, gave me one last hug and ruffled my hair before setting about getting his horse and heading out of the cave. The space he left was filled by an Olivia. "Are you ready?"

"I was, but not for this." I sulked. She gave me a confused look, but I ignored it and gathered my horses reins then headed out of the cave myself.

"Hey Jesse," Axel called coming up to me, "let's try our handshake again, just once, for the road."

I laughed, "that awful thing?" we then proceeded to look like idiots trying to remember how it went, Magnus and Petra gave us funny looks which caused the both of us to burst out laughing. I never cared if I looked silly to other people, I was happy in my silliness. "I'll see you at Soren's, all right?" I told him as I got on my horse in a rather unladylike fashion, why don't horses come with ladders?

"Not if I see you first." He jested at me.

And off we went, with Soren leading on his horse and Ivor on the back. I followed on a little behind with Reuben. A pig or a horse you say? He was a tiny piglet with tiny legs, I didn't want him exhausting himself trying to keep up thank you very much. Olivia was steering? Is that what you called it? With Gabriel on the back and then Lukas had his own horse.

* * *

I should of taken Ivor more literally when he said 'sort of far away' as we'd been riding for at least a day now. Saddles might be designed to ride horses with but they weren't designed very well, everything hurt by the time we had our first break.  
We'd been riding in a rainy grass biome for a good half day when I asked Ivor if we were nearly there which was answered with an 'almost'. I sighed and watched Reuben play about in the mud, there was a saying about pigs in mud and it was definitely true.  
We rode on for two more days through the grass biome, but at least it had stopped raining now and then I took that back after spending three days in a mesa biome. The only place hotter was the Nether and I was sure it was only by a little.  
I questioned Ivor again with an 'are we there yet?', since this wasn't an 'almost', three days travelling isn't an 'almost'.

"Not much further now." Was the response this time, but for some reason I didn't believe him.  
Not much was said during our time travelling, I was too busy worrying about the people that we had left behind and I was sure Lukas was also worrying about his friends, in everything that had happened we'd never got the chance to go and look for them, which made me feel worse still. Olivia was being kept amused by questions from Gabriel, although amused might be the wrong word, annoyed perhaps?  
We hit an ice biome next which made me miss the heat of the mesa biome. Ivor fell asleep on Soren who gave him a good elbow to wake him up which made me laugh.  
Out of all of the biomes, the day we spent in the jungle biome was my favourite. It was warm but not hot and no rain which is always a bonus. I asked Ivor if we were nearly there again which annoyed him,

"No no no no NO! We are not there yet." I let out an annoyed sound. I don't know how much more of horses and soreness I could take.  
We finally came to a swamp biome when Soren and Ivor began arguing again.

"I am telling you, we cannot go to the Far Land." Soren said as my brain joined in the conversation. "They're not just the edge of our world, but the limits of our comprehension."

"Oh please, the Far Lands are a happy accident. Nature's way of keeping things interesting." Ivor argued back.

"No no no, they are perilous and unpredictable."

"I think they sound cool." I hoped I wasn't adding fuel to the fire, but I really did think that. I was always up for adventure and the Far Lands were one of the top places to go for that, well at least I think they were, I'd heard of them but never been.

"See? Jesse thinks they're cool." Ivor repeated just to bother Soren, of whom ignored him.

"The Far Lands lie at the very edge of all things, where logic gives way to chaos. They're a dangerous place to visit and a ridiculous place to construct a laboratory." That sounded strange coming from Soren, who created his base of operations in The End and lived there, Ivor didn't actually live in the Far Lands, at least I didn't think so.

"Just wait until you see it."

"Do those two never stop arguing?" Olivia asked no one particular.

"I don't know. I'm too hungry to care." Gabriel answered.

"Yeah, I'm starving." Lukas agreed.

"We all are." 'Liv added. It had been a while since we last ate or rested come to think of it.

"Maybe we should stop to rest for a while?" I suggested.

"This isn't the time, swamps are too dangerous. You never know what might be lurking around." Informed Ivor.

"Well, I'm taking a break." Olivia ignored Ivor's warning and got off her horse, everyone followed suit.

"We mustn't linger long, the Far Lands are just beyond this swamp." Ivor came and told me. That was the best news I'd heard in ages.  
My friends had all but collapsed near a tree and it didn't look like they were going anywhere soon, not without food, so I tasked myself with finding some.

A bunch of potatoes were the best I could come up with after routing about, not a single animal was near by and I didn't have a fishing rod to fish in the swamp. I headed back to my group with my findings and shared them out, I received thank you's and told everyone I was going to keep trying.  
After wadding through some water I saw a cake on the ledge of a hut and went to investigate it.

"A witch's hut."

"Argh!" Where had Ivor come from?

"We should steer clear of it, nothing good ever happens when witches are involved." He was speaking in whispers so I did the same.

"But the cake, that's enough to feed everyone."

"It isn't worth it Jesse, witches hate trespassers." We heard a cackle from close by and a figured moved about the trees.

"Is that a witch?" I'd never seen one before.

"Jesse, we shouldn't be here. Witches are very strong."

"Ivor, I can't pass this up. I need you to watch my back, okay?" I was hoping that he was on our side now.

"I'm telling you, this is a bad idea..." I ignored him and climbed my way to the hut. "Fine, I'll keep watch, just be quick about it."

There was practically nothing inside the witch's hut; a few sides, a chest or two and a cauldron, but all I cared about though was the cake which I promptly stole and pocketed. Axel would be proud of me and even more so when I thought 'screw it' and starting routing about the chests, I found a potion and that came with me as well. I knew nothing of potions so made a note to ask Ivor later if I'd found a good one.  
I heard a cackle behind me and turned just in time to see the owner of the hut through a potion at me, I rolled forward to dodge it and leapt at her, we both flew out of the window and I didn't feel like sticking around so ran back to my friends. Where was Ivor, had he ditched me?

Olivia stood up as I approached. "Jesse, did you find any more food?"

"No, well sort of, but it doesn't matter. There's a witch near by, she was..." a potion came passed my shoulder and hit the ground, it missed everyone by some miracle.

"She's here!" Shouted Soren, pointing out the obvious.

I drew my golden sword and faced her, I dodged a potion with another roll and struck her with my sword but she didn't go down. I think I was the only one with a weapon at this point, as I dodged another potion I hit her down again. She poofed but her potion had landed and burst near the horses, scaring them away.  
Then a set of arrows hit the ground around me and my friends, skeletons, and a lot of them, another witch joined the group, there was no way I could take them all. I rolled under witch's potion to the left and pushed her over, shouting 'run' to my friends as I did so. No one fancied their chances and did just that.

"Ivor said the Far Lands are just passed this swamp." I said to Soren, catching up with everyone running.

"Wait, where is Ivor?" He asked me back. I'd like to know that myself.

"I have no idea, he disappeared outside the witch's hut."

"Curse that fool of a man." Soren said to himself. No one spoke after that, we just ran in the direction we hoped was the Far Lands.

"Guys, I think we lost... Wow!" I stopped in my tracks.

"I see your 'wow' and raise you a WHOAAAA!" Lukas came to stand next me to as we stared ahead at what could only really be described by a whoa.  
The Far Lands were just as Soren had told us, a crazy mess of things with no logic to them what so ever.  
It looked like someone had sworn a mountain clean in half, in went higher than you could see and looked like it really was a border to our world, a perfect flatness without a block sticking out. But the crazy madness came from what was inside. At first glance you'd think they were just caves, long deep ones that continued back beyond sight in perfect cut-outs, but some bits were completely flat or had water flowing down that stopped and went nowhere, then a random tree would be suspended in a gap, no land under it, just a floating tree. I knew we were all gawking at it with open mouths.

"It's like we're at the edge of the world." Olivia said.

"Actually, we seem to be at the corner of it." Soren pointed out. The cut-up mountain bent at a complete 90 degree angle and carried on. Like I said, a border to the world. "Welcome to the Far Lands, my friends." He had started walking towards them and we just all followed like dazed sheep.

"I'm glad you snagged this cake Jesse, makes the whole wall-of-insanity thing much easier to face." Olivia thanked me while eating her share.

"Say what you like about witches, but they sure know how to make a cake." Gabriel commented around mouthfuls of his piece.

"Quite a sight, isn't it?" Soren asked me quietly.

"Soren, have you been here before?" I asked him, his question was a bit rhetorical.

"Not here specifically, but I have visited the Far Lands. The Order travelled far and wide during our heyday."

"Ivor really went out of it way to make sure he'd never get visitors, huh?" I said back to him.

"He was always secretive, it was both his weakness and his strength. Whatever Ivor's hiding in here, it will be extremely well-guarded." We'd reached the wall and a few glowstone blocks lit up a tunnel, "This way, I suspect." And Soren went right on in, the rest of us took a moment,

"I'd feel better about this if everyone were here." Lukas voiced my thoughts and Olivia agreed with him. I took a deep breath and followed after Soren.

* * *

What waited for us inside was a maze and Olivia pointed out that fact with Soren agreeing with her.

"It would appear so and a massive one from the looks of it. If Ivor used the Command block to build this, it could hold unspeakable peril."

"So, maybe we should not just wander into the world's hardest maze without a guide?" Lukas suggested.

"Unfortunately, this seems to be the only way forward." Soren pointed out.

"There has to be another way." Olivia's voice sounded like she really did not want to enter it and I couldn't blame her.

"There's no way we're going into some crazy maze that Ivor built to keep people away. Let's see if we can find some other way through." I said to the group agreeing with Lukas and Olivia on this one.

"Best decision you've made all day." Came a very relieved Olivia and we all split up to search the entrance.

There was no where else to go but the maze it seemed, part of the area was blocked off by a large amount of gravel, I was thinking about digging through it when Soren shouted, "Everyone, en garde."

I turned to see a massive group of zombies heading out of the maze entrance, Soren held a sword that I didn't know he had and everyone was backing up.

"There's too many, we can't fight them all." Olivia pointed out.

They saw and headed slowly, as zombies do, towards me, I started backing up when something green and non-zombie caught my eye, "The vines! Climb the vines!" No one argued and started climbing.

"Well that worked, I suppose." Soren said after he reached to top.

"Yeah, I guess." I heard Olivia as she pointed at me and I waved back.

"Now what? We're all separated." Lukas said, at least I think it was him, it was hard to hear as I was quite far apart from everyone, in fact, we all stood on different parts of the wall, with Lukas being the furtherest from me, Reuben was with Olivia, Gabriel and Soren stood together as well.

"Let's just head towards Ivor's place and hope we find a place where the paths connect." I shouted across, everyone nodded, shouting agreements back and 'be safe' 'don't get lost', then we all headed across the maze.

The good thing about being on top of a maze is you can see things better. You could plan your route, well some what. It was dark inside this giant cave and the few scattered torches didn't do as much as you'd like. Ivor's place was lit up by a big beam of light coming from the ceiling.  
Olivia and Reuben had gone down into the maze, I wondered if that was a good idea or not, but I knew that Olivia wasn't a fan of heights.  
There were pillars of water coming from the ceiling and it made me think back to when I;d found Reuben by a waterfall, although it was much sunnier... And greener.  
Bits of floating land were arranged awkwardly around the maze, one even had a tree growing from it.  
A spider jumped up from no where and I had to fight it on top of the maze, I took my gold sword and struck it down, only for it to then break on me. "You have got to be kidding me." That was all that I needed, with a sigh I carried on, no need worrying about something out of my control.  
I headed to a part of the maze where the waterfalls gave way to lavafalls, little streams of lava pouring down. As I was looking at them I spotted Olivia and Reuben walk under me, I shouted down to her but she didn't hear me. When I looked back up a witch was stood cackling at me, was it the one from before? I had no weapon, wait, yes I did. I had a bow and three arrows, would that be enough? It would have to be I thought as I drew the first arrow at her. I ducked under her potion and shot the arrow, quickly following it up with another. I somehow managed a roll on top of the maze to dodge another potion and shot my final arrow, which knocked her off the top. I was out of arrows but she poofed due to fall damage and I thanked my luck. Not sticking around for anyone else to find me I hurried alone the maze top.

The maze top broke down into a step like pattern, which led out onto a green area with a strange looking redstone machine. I guessed that this was the exit of the maze, it also seemed like I was the first one there.  
I went to the edge of the green area first which came to a stop and a massive black drop down, there was no way we were walking across, that's for sure. Ivor's laboratory was way out of reach and there was no bridge connecting it to this side, no way to climb down and back up either. Well, it was a secret, hard to reach place for a reason I suppose.  
I decided to take in my surroundings, there was a chest and a crafting table to one side of the area, with the redstone machine to the other and that was it. First up then, check the chest. It held nine pieces of redstone dust and a slime ball, I pocketed them, they must of been here for a reason. Just as I was thinking of how useful it would be to have Olivia right now to take a look at this machine, she must of heard my thoughts, as she and Reuben came out of the maze.

"Jesse! There you are."

"Am I glad to see you guys." I said as I gave them both big hugs.

"Us too! I thought Reuben and I would be lost in there forever." She paused, "this maze, we don't have time for this. Who ever knows where the others are."

"Hey, at least we're back together." We moved to stand near the edge and look across at Ivor's lab.

"Yes! The dream team, reunited." Reuben gave an oink of agreement. "Now the dream teams just gotta find away across this gaping bottomless pit."

"What about this thing? Could it get us across?" I pointed to the machine and the three of us went to investigate it. It looked like a mess of; pistons, slime blocks and redstone blocks, with two stone blocks that had boat type things attached. It made no sense whatsoever to me.

Olivia pondered it for a moment before sharing her thoughts, "Its some kind of flying barge. It would probably get us to the other side, but it's in really bad shape." I knew she would know what this thing was, "and it's really complicated."

"You can fix it though, right?"

"I don't know, I think it's out of my league."

"C'mon, you'll figure it out, I know you can 'Liv." Minus maybe Soren and Ivor who build the thing, she was the smartest person I knew, Olivia knew redstone better than anyone I'd met.

"... Fine, I'll take a look." She gave me a cheesy grin and I gave one back. Olivia walked around the machine a few times, muttering to herself, "this layout doesn't even make any sense, what was Ivor thinking?" Then she sat on the ground and sighed heavily, "or maybe it's just me. I mean, Ellegaard herself said that I don't have what it takes to be a great engineer. She was right, I just can't hack it."

Me and Reuben came to sit next to her, I leaned against part of the machine next to her while Reuben gave her a head nuzzle, she looked to him and gave him a pat before turning her gaze back to the floor. "Ellegaard didn't know you like I do, prove her wrong. Show the world that you ARE a great engineer!"

"Prove her wrong? Jesse... She was the greatest redstone engineer, ever! She was in the Order of the Stone."

"Sure, but the Order are still people, just like us."

"Right.. Just like us. I mean, how are we the ones saving the world when even they don't have what it takes? Soren and Ivor are always at each other's throats, the greatest warrior in history doesn't even remember his own name, all I've ever seen Magnus do is argue, and we both know what happened to Ellegaard." I opened my mouth but ended up shutting it again, it was hard to argue with the truth. "If the Order can't do this, how are we supposed to?"

"All I know is, the world is depending on us Olivia."

"Then maybe the world is in trouble. I mean, they defeated an Ender dragon. Can you name even one thing we've done right?" I just couldn't get through to her this time, but I wasn't about to give up.

"Well for starters, we made it to the Far Lands."

"And we're stuck here."

"Yeah, but we could have been stuck anywhere else along the way. Instead we fought and figured things out, look how far we've come!"

She was silent for a long time before finally showing some optimism, "I like that way of looking at it." I gave her a smile and tilted my head, giving her my best puppy eyes, "argh. All right, I'll try it one more time." And that she did, giving the machine another look over from all angles, I stayed where I was, leaning against the machine while she pondered over it. "I think... Wait... I think I see what he way trying to do... Jesse!" I heard my name which startled me from my thoughts, "take this piston and craft it into a sticky piston. We're also going to need a redstone block, but..."

"There was enough redstone dust in that chest actually." I informed her. Olivia gave me a look as if to say 'why didn't you tell me sooner', I said a quick sorry and got about making the materials for her.  
When they were made, a redstone block and a sticky piston, I passed them back to her and resumed my important job of leaning against the machine, while 'Liv did whatever it was that she was doing with redstone. Neither of us said anything for a while, well except when Reuben came to sit next to me and asked if Olivia was okay, I reassured him that she was going to be just fine. I gave him a pat for a while until a question popped into my head that I just couldn't ignore,

"Hey, 'Liv could I ask you a question?"

"Hmm? Of course, what is it?"

"Well, I was just wondering... What you thought about Lukas?"

"Oh... I knew there was something going on." Olivia gave me the most mischievous grin I'd ever seen in my life.

"What? No, it's not like that," something didn't feel right inside me as I said those words, "it's just, well, I was wondering what you thought as I don't think he's like the other Ocelots, you know, he's a nice person." I was falling over my words trying and dodge 'Liv's sharp mind.  
I wasn't exactly looking for her approval, I just valued Olivia's opinion and I was hoping it would help make sense of what was going on inside of me.  
I didn't love him, but saying that I didn't feel anything also didn't sit right with me, Lukas had definitely become an important person to me. Out of everyone, except Reuben, he had been the only person to show me any sort of personal support along the way and I hated myself for thinking that, it wasn't like I was expecting or demanding attention and I knew the journey so far had been tough on us all, but to think that he would be the one over everyone else to do that for me and for me to hold that so highly, made me surprisingly happy, which then made me realized I had judged him for how his friends were and that was a terrible thing to do. But then that just brought the whole thing back around, because when the world was safe and everyone was not dying, what would happen? Was this just a thing because the world was ending and we were there for each other? Or was it real and if so, would we be able to make it work when our friends hated the space that the others occupied?  
My mind was going in circles over a kiss and that was what took me most by surprise, just a simple kiss had me all confused about myself and what I was feeling.

"Well," Olivia started, eyeing me suspiciously, "I don't hate him, if that's what you mean. I guess I kinda see what you're saying, other than that one moment in the treehouse, he's been a great help, and I hate to admit it, but he knows what he's on about..." She laughed, "who'd of thought it hey? Me, being nice to an Ocelot? The world really is ending."

"The world's not going to end 'Liv." She gave me a snort and we stopped talking, which left me with my heart and brain arguing.

"There, we did it." I turned my head to Olivia as she stood up and looked over her handy work, I fumbled about, standing to join her. "We just need need flint and steel to get it start."

"Handy I still have some then." I grinned at her, "See? I knew you could do it, I'm proud of you Olivia!"

"Heh, thanks Jesse. And... Thanks for everything you said before, it really helped."

"No problemo." We high-fived.

That was when we heard shouts coming from the exit of the maze, the owners of the shouts then came running out, what they were running from was a lot of zombies, again. I shouted to everyone to jump into the boat things on the front of the machine and pulled out my flint and steel.  
I made sure everyone was on board before striking one of the redstone blocks, which caused the machine to start moving forward. The boat parts were already over the edge when I ran, jumped and caught the edge of one. I heaved myself into it.  
I had Olivia and Reuben in my boat while Lukas, Gabriel and Soren occupied the other.

"That was close. Everyone okay?" I asked.

"For the moment." Soren answered, while everyone else gave nods and yes's.

We'd escaped from all the zombies as the strange barge inched it's way across the chasm in a sort of jerking motion.

"Wait, I remember something." Said Gabriel all of a suddenly, "Didn't Ellegaard build a machine like this once?" Hurray! Apparently time was all Gabriel would need to gain his memory back, although I did wonder how much it would take.

"Yes... In the Nether." Soren didn't sound to happy about that.

"And you were terrified of flying on it!"

"What? Stuff and nonsense."

"Pfft, is that true Soren?" I had to ask as I found it hard to believe, out of anyone, that Soren would be afraid of flying on a machine.

"Of course not!" He snapped back. "Aaah!"

"Haha, well I suppose I might be mistaken." Gabriel added, but even he knew he wasn't.

"Hmm... I liked you better when you had amnesia." Soren told him which made us all laugh as we reached the other side. Stepping off the barge onto green grass we didn't hang about, heading immediately into Ivor's lab.

* * *

The inside of Ivor's laboratory was ninety percent bookshelves, which were completely full. There was a winding pathway through to the back of the room with strange blue ore type blocks giving off light. Potions and strange nick-nacks were scattered about the bookshelf tops.

"We should be careful, this place could be booby-trapped." Olivia noted and we all split up to try and find a single book in a library.

I worked my way from the front of the house, scanning books to see if anything jumped out. A Brief History of Cubism? Crafting for Noobs, Revised? A Collector's Guide to Precious Gems? Nope, none of these were anything close. I sighed from my place on the floor and noticed Lukas, standing absently, looking in the corner bookshelves.

"Hey Lukas, having any luck?"

"No, just... Been thinking about other stuff actually." His voice sounded sad and exhausted, he sat down where he was, joining me on the floor.

"Stuff such as...?" I was pretty sure I already knew, but I hoped by talking to me that I might be able to help.

"You know, Gabriel, the Ocelots... People getting Wither sickness and amnesia..." He sighed, "don't get me wrong, I'm glad I came with you, it's just... I'm scared for everyone."

"I'm sorry we never got a chance to go a search did we? No, that's not right, we should of made time." I felt like such a bad person, that in all the hurry and excitement of coming up with an actual plan, I'd overlooked something so important to someone close to me. I carried on, not wanting to dwell on something beyond our control now, "I'm scared too, Lukas. I mean, we keep telling ourselves that Petra will be fine, but we don't really know that and as for everyone else..." I lent against the bookshelf and brought my knees up, hugging them for some sense of security. "But I think that's what makes you a good friend, Lukas. Thinking about others even at a time like this, it says a lot..." I wasn't really looking at him, more the floor and speaking absently, just letting my mouth just say what was on my brain.

"Well, I like my friends. I guess that's why they're friends in the first place, right?"

"Heh, yeah, either that or you like that they say nice things about you." My eye finally met his blue ones from my hunched over position on the floor, he chuckled at my comment before replying,

"Ivor, on the other hand, I think his only friends were books."

"Nothing wrong with books, but I guess being an angry loner leaves you a lot of time to read."

"Tell me about it." Lukas started reading off some of the names of the books behind him, "How to Train Your Slime, The Various Uses of Mooshroom Stew, Potion-ology, Volume... Twenty-four!?"

"But no enchanting book...?"

"I doubt it." We both gave sighs, feeling the difficulty of the task we'd ended up with.

I heard Olivia call me from a little way into the room, I heaved myself up and headed in her direction. "I'm guessing you haven't found anything?" I asked her.

"Nothing at all..." I saw her face fall a little, she hushed her voice before she got to the reason why she called me over, "How did we end up all split up like this Jesse? I miss how things used to be, like that first night that we all spent together."

"Hey at least Lukas stayed," I said back to her quietly so no one else would hear, namely Lukas. "For a moment back at the cave, I thought he was going to leave us."

"I'm glad you talked him out of it. I was thinking about what you said before... He's smart, I like having him around." Seems like she had gotten over the whole 'one of them' thing and was being honest.

I looked over my shoulder to make sure that he wasn't listening and whispered into 'Liv's ear, "and... He has excellent hair."

She peeked around me and then whispered back, "he does have good hair, doesn't he? Hehe. See? This is why we get along so well."

"Anyway, we might be spread thin but we're all still a team. That's how teams work."

"Hey, you almost said teamwork."

"See? We're still funny, and we can still get things done." I think I was starting to cheer her up.

"I guess being split up just means we can be in more places at once, right? Kinda like... The Wither Storm..."

"Let's just forget that metaphor." Olivia nodded in agreement and set about continuing the search, I myself doing the same with the bookshelves behind her, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Mining, The Unabridged Redstone Encylopedia, it was tempting to take this one for Olivia, but I thought better of it. Zombies and Pigs, an Intimate Memoir... Clearly I was in the wrong section of the room, I thought it best that I didn't finish that section.

As I rounded the corner, Soren was stood not looking to happy about the situation, I asked him if he'd found anything yet.

"In this mess? It's as though Ivor learned nothing from my lectures on organizational methodology. If only he hadn't gotten lost in the confounded swamp... He could just tell us where the book is."

"It wasn't his fault, he was just doing as I asked, Soren." Which was true to an extent. I'd asked him to cover me while I stole the witch's cake but he'd all but vanished.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Soren snapped back at me. He started pacing about a little, "there's neither rhyme nor reason to how these books are stored. Finding anything here is impossible!"

"Tedious, maybe. Impossible? No way."

He gave it a think over before answering me, "fine! I will continue this monotonous search, but I reserve my right to grumble about it."

Success! I gave him a smile, "It's a deal."

I spotted Gabriel, who was stood at the very back part of the room, he was pondering over some potions it seemed, when he saw me he called me over. "This Ivor character... I'm recalling that he knew something about potions. Could one of these stop the Wither monsters?" That was a bit of a touchy subject for everyone, but I'm glad something else had returned to Gabriel.

"What do you remember, Gabriel?"

"I seem to recall that Ivor was... Better with potions than people... And he... He..."

"Keep going." I encouraged.

"Nothing else is coming. Besides the whole Ivor-being-a-jerk thing." I laughed through my nose and shook my head, that wasn't really what I had meant. Gabriel turned to the bookshelves and started to read some of the labels on the potions, "potion of blindness, potion of dullness, potion of nausea... None of these will help me." He gave a defeated sigh before turning back to me, "Jesse, am I going to be all right?"

I wish I had an answer to that question, a real one, one that was a definite yes. "Don't worry, we're going to find a way to fix you." I didn't want to give him false hope, "You and Petra and everyone else the Wither storms affected."

"But, to do that, you'll need to destroy the Command Block, will you not?"

"So that's exactly what we're going to do." That was why we we're here in the first place.

"You never stop fighting, I admire that." I couldn't afford to not keep fighting and I wouldn't. I wanted my friends safe and if that meant saving the world from the Storms then that was exactly what I was going to do.  
Gabriel had gone back to search though a part of my brain thought, did he even remember what he was looking for? I sighed. I needed some Reuben to cheer myself up, keeping everyone else going this long had worn on me a little it seemed.

This end part of the room was a little more open, a black and purple carpet was in the middle on the floor, a crafting table at the far left side with a chest next to it, bookshelves lined the walls still and there was a fire place in the middle of the very back wall, but instead of fire, it had lava... How had the books not caught fire?  
My best friend was sat in front of the lava, warming himself.

"Reuben! What are you doing?"

He gave me a few oinks which told me he was warming himself, since he couldn't help us search the books.

"Yeah well, you're gonna get yourself cooked! I've told you before, stay away from lava!"

He grumped at me and reluctantly relocated himself behind a few cobblestone blocks that were sticking out from the left of the 'fire' place. I gave him a hug and apologized, telling him it was for his own safety.  
That was when I noticed a gap in the cobblestone, upon further investigation I found redstone inside and shouted to Olivia to come take a look,

"Looks like a circuit. We probably just need a lever to power it."

"Well luckily, I just so happen to have one, from like, forever ago" I crafted this as a joke, back when Petra had saved me from a spider after I'd gone to find Reuben. That was just before she showed me the Wither skull, it seemed like such a long time ago now.

I placed it on the block next to the circuit and called everyone over, "let's see what this sucker does." I hit the lever downwards and the lava disappeared, next, the floor in front of the 'fire' place started to shift down to create steps which led down into darkness, of course there was a dark creepy basement in Ivor's lab.

"Why would you build a secret passage in a house nobody ever visits?" Lukas asked.

"More like, why wouldn't you? Secret passageways are cool." Was the answer I gave him, it received a round of nods from my friends.

Soren headed down first and I followed next with Reuben. Soren must of tripped some sort of tripwire as behind me the walls closed, trapping us.  
Lukas had been behind me and I heard him shout through, asking if we were okay.

"We're fine, are you guys all right?"

"We're good too, but the lever isn't working anymore!" Olivia sounded like, well, like I was hearing her through a stone wall.

I turned to Soren and gave him a look which was followed by a sigh, "Stay there. We'll head down and see what we can find." And that was exactly what we did, heading down the dimly lit staircase into the unknown.

* * *

The dimly lit staircase didn't end in a dimly lit room, it was actually the opposite. It opened into a wide stone room that wasn't dark and basement-y, with wooden fences lining the doorways and paintings of various places scattered across the walls. Our doorway was in the middle on our side, with two, long red carpets running down the sides and a set of iron doors in the far left corner. There were two item stands on each carpet and then one in the near the end of the room.

"What is all this?" I said absently.

"Incredible! He's gathered them all in one place." Soren said with no indication that he was going to elaborate.

"Gathered what exactly?"

"The treasures of the Order of the Stone." He started walking into the room more while I stood in the doorway, letting what Soren had just said sink in. The actual treasures? From their adventures? I felt a bit overcome with myself, of course meeting the members was the dream but this was like a cherry on the top. "The stories I could tell about these dusty old things..."

"I don't see any enchanting books though..." I reminded Soren, and myself, trying to keep on track. "Maybe through there?" I offered, pointing to the iron doors and wandering over.  
Soren gave the doors a try, locked, here had to be some way to open it. Soren wandered the room a little more before coming to a stop at the end to the right a little and oddly, Reuben stood with him.  
Since we were here, I might as well nose at the treasures I thought, I started with the one closest to me and the iron doors,

"These Ghast Tears... They're super hard to get." The white tears looked so delicate on the wooden display plate.

"You don't know the half of it." Soren started explaining, "It was our first official mission as the Order of the Stone, We fought those Ghast for hours, and these tears were our reward... Jesse, what are you doing?"

"Uh... Taking this really cool rare item?" I couldn't help myself, the thought of owning actual treasures of the Order, it was too good of an opportunity to miss. I tried to find reason to my theft, "we might need it to unlock that door?"

After a moment of thinking Soren finally gave in, "very well, just be careful with it."

I didn't need to be told twice and pocketed the Ghast tears. The second I lifted them off the wooden plate though it rose up, like a pressure plate... Hmm...

I moved to the last stand on the left, "So where'd this Packed Ice come from?"

"We brought it back from the Ice Plains Spikes biome. It was colder there than anywhere we'd ever been, but Magnus slipped so many times, our laughter kept us warm." He paused a moment, chuckling at the memory, "after that, we knew we were ready to face the Ender dragon." I pocketed the Packed Ice block and moved to the stands on the right side of the room.

"These are Prismarine crystals. You can only get these underwater, right?" A few small teal coloured triangles were placed on the stand.

"Precisely. We nearly ran out of oxygen getting these. Ellegaard had to use a spare bucket just to get a few extra breaths. We used most of them to craft a Sea Lantern, this is all that remains." Yoink.

The forth, and final stand to the right, held what Soren had just described. I couldn't believe it, they were so rare. "Is this the Sea Lantern?" I goggled.

"Ah! The very same one, we built it so long ago... We were so green back then. It looks just as bright as on the day we crafted it."

I saved the final, middle stand for last, naming because I couldn't believe what was on it. "Soren... Is this the actual Ender dragon egg?" A dark purple and black egg stood quite comfortably on the stand, taking up ninety percent of it, it was huge. And rightly so, it was a dragon egg after all.

"Alas, yes. The only thing that remains of our final adventure together."

"No way I'm leaving this behind." Upon taking the egg, the back wall clunked into life and moved down, into the floor. "A hooper?"

"Why is Ivor hiding a hooper in his basement?" Was Soren asking me? Because I had no clue either.

I crossed one arm over my chest, chewed on a finger from the other and set my brain to think mode.  
Five upside down black triangles, or hoppers, lined the space behind the wall each with a number on it, one to five. I guessed that they opened the iron doors if you put the right items in and it just so happened that I had five items. This was obviously a puzzle to guard whatever was behind those doors, but which order did the items go in? I assumed that there was some logic behind it and that they couldn't just be placed at random, or then what was the point of it at all?  
The items were all very different, other than the fact that they belonged to the Order they shared no similarities. Wait, they belonged to the Order, was that it? The Ghast tears were the first item the Order gained as a team, with the dragon egg being the last. The Packed Ice was second to last, before they set off to destroy the Ender dragon, which left the Prismarine Shards and then the Sea Lantern, see you use the shards to craft a lantern.  
In my mind, at least, it made sense; tears, shards, lantern, ice, egg. I fished all of the items back out of my inventory and placed them in the hoppers in the order I had decided. To my amazement, it worked and the iron doors opened up.

"You solved it?" Soren said, walking over to the doors, "but how in the world did you know what order to put them in? There were one hundred and twenty possible combinations."

"It was all in your stories, the Orders history. The 'order' of the Order, so to speak." I explained to him.

"Nice work Jesse. On the puzzle I mean, not the joke." Thanks, I guess? "I often give Ivor a hard time, but for all his complaining, his time with the Order clearly meant a great deal to him."

"Yeah, it seems that way. Anyway, let's go get that enchanting book." I reminded Soren and we head off through the doors.

"By the stars! The Ender dragon." Exclaimed Soren as we entered another room.

This one was smaller than the last, or well the part of it we were in. Think of it as a giant cave with a walled off section, I could tell this because you could see over the stone wall, but in the space above was an amazing structure of an Ender dragon. The whole thing was made out of obsidian blocks, except the bone wing frame, back spines and horns which were made from some sort of white block that I couldn't make out from this distance away, and redstone lamps for eyes. It was huge and amazing to look at, a replica of the real thing I guessed, it definitely dominated the space. "Wow, I always wondered what it looked like." The three of us moved into the small room, the stone wall was lined with redstone lamps that gave off small glows, making this room much dimmer than the previous one, they were also set into the surrounding walls.  
Four odd obsidian creations stood in the room. Three blocks along and four up, with three blocks in a sideways triangle shape standing on the three along, the middle one being against the four up side. On the middle bottom and middle triangle blocks was placed a redstone repeater, and a redstone torch behind the middle triangle block. A button was placed on the front of the four up stack, two blocks up for easy pressing and each obsidian creation had a different banner at the top of the four block high part; a yellow one with a bow and arrow picture, a red one with a redstone picture, a blue one with a diamond sword picture and a green one with a TNT picture. On the very top of the four stack stood a redstone lamp, glowing faintly.  
I guessed that the buttons had a certain order to which they needed to be pressed, just like the last puzzle.  
Soren stood near the stone wall gazing at the dragon, while Reuben sniffed at a new set of iron doors we'd been giving, they were to the right of where we'd entered the room, I gave him a pat before talking to Soren, "Soren... What's this thing supposed to be?"

"It appears to be a homage to our battle with the Ender dragon." He explained.

"We're missing something here Soren, and I have a feeling the key might be locked in that head of yours."

"I have a key locked in my head?" Soren said, shocked at this news. For a moment I said nothing, was he serious?

"... What I'm saying is, I think you need to tell me about the Ender dragon battle."

"Oh! If only you'd been there," I wish I could of been, but maybe sat safely out of the way with popcorn and a fizzy drink, I had the feeling that having them now would also be a good idea, this was going to be story mode time. "It was a fight for the ages. We'd spent weeks preparing for our greatest battle ever. But even so, the Ender dragon was stronger than even I had imagined. I realized it was drawing strength from the Ender Crystals, and that the crystals had to be destroyed.

"What did they look like?" I blurted out. It was rude of me to interrupt sure, but I wanted to know what they looked liked, I'd never seen one before and I doubted that I would get a chance now.

"... Think of a purple glowing block inside two clear blocks that have jagged borders. They floated and twisted, balanced on high columns of obsidian. The Ender dragon would fly past one and it would shoot out a purple beam of light, connecting to the dragon. The columns were in a circle and when we defeated the dragon, an altar in the centre appeared, with the egg in the middle and our exit portal home around it." He paused, "can I continue now?"

"Yes, sorry." I replied sheepishly.

"I hit the first crystal with a perfectly placed arrow. The second, I destroyed by launching myself on the shockwave of Magnus' TNT. I jumped, landing on the dragons back and using only my strength and wiles, I steered the foul beast towards Ellegaard's redstone arrow machine, the arrows missed the dragon but hit the third crystal, the dragon turned sharply trying to dodge the arrows and flew into the forth crystal, destroying it. With the crystals gone, the Ender dragon hit an obsidian column and came crashing down, I jumped at the last minute to save myself and only then did Gabriel deliver his famous final blow. We became heroes and eventually, legends."

"That, was absolutely amazing!" Everyone knew they'd defeated the Ender dragon but no one knew the whole story, I felt honoured to be one of the first to know how it exactly went down, I say one of the first because of course I was going to tell my friends.

"Well, they didn't call us the Order of the Stone for nothing." Soren pointed out.

After Soren's story we were silent, I wondered if it would help me solve this puzzle. I had four buttons to press in a certain order, they had to be referring to the Ender dragon battle, why else build a scale replica of one here? I moved to stand in front of the obsidian creations so I could see all four flags, they were the only thing different between each one. Each flag had the symbol that referred to a member of the Order expect the yellow one, Soren's symbol was iron not a bow, but he did use a bow in the battle, was that it? Soren used a bow first and then Magnus with his TNT, followed by Ellegaard and Gabriel finished it off. It was all I had so I decided that I might as well give it a shot, each time I pressed one of the buttons, the redstone lamp above turned off.  
To my surprised, it worked and the iron doors opened, but we both snagged as behind them were another set. Now what? I had no more buttons to press, no more odd obsidian/redstone creations, there had to be a secret button here somewhere.  
After searching the room I came up empty, with a sigh, I gazed up at the Ender dragon statue. It's wings were open, looking like it was ready to swoop down, it's tail came over the wall, the doorway and then down the side of the tiny room. My brain thought, maybe there was something on the dragon? I might of been clutching at straws but it was all I had, moving over to the tail I jumped up and heaved myself onto it. Soren watched what I was doing with a curious eye, so I told him what was going on in my head as I made my way up and across the dragons back.  
There, on it's head between it's horns was a lever. I had a little inside party as I reached and activated it. Soren shouted to me that the second set of iron doors had opened and I made my way back down to him.

"Bravo! You did it!"

"There's the book!" The room behind the doors was small with a single white quartz block in the middle and on that block rested an open book, pages turning back and forth by itself with strange symbols floating around it. "Wait! Aren't those Ender Crystals? Like, the real ones?" Behind the quartz block were four little platforms made from obsidian and above them each hovered an Ender Crystal, they looked exactly as Soren had described. He said in his story that the crystals were the power source of the Ender dragon, if the dragon was dead how were they here? There was nothing else in this room except from the book and the crystals and now that you took a moment to look about, the symbols that were floating around the book and begin absorbed by it seemed to be coming from the Ender crystals. What in overworld was going on here?

"No, it can't be." Soren said in disbelief.

"But those things were destroyed in your big heroic battle with the Ender dragon, right Soren?"

"He kept them. The fool actually kept them." Soren was ignoring me, "He looked me in the eye and swore..."

"Soren! What is all this? What in the overworld is going on here? You said destroying these crystals was the key to defeating the Ender dragon." I didn't want to say it, I knew the answer already but I didn't want to believe it was true. "You did defeat the Ender dragon, right?"

"Jesse, this isn't, this isn't what it looks like." He fumbled about for words, pointing at the crystals. "Our story, the story... It's mostly true, I swear!"

"Soren, I want the truth and I want it now." My voiced was a little raised, I felt myself getting angry.

"I can't... We swore never to speak of it..."

"I don't care!"

He was quiet for a moment before he finally sighed, giving in. He couldn't dig his way out of this one, I wanted to know what really happened.

"I'm afraid I haven't been honest with you Jesse. We did defeat the Ender dragon, but it wasn't exactly like I said." Soren moved over to the platforms the crystals were hovering on.

"How 'not exactly'!?"

"We got rid of it... But we... Didn't kill it, per se. In fact, we didn't even fight it at all."

"Will you just spit it out already!?"

"We didn't do anything!" He said crossly, "we used that damned Command Block!"

"You used the Command Block to defeat the Ender dragon!?" So Ivor really had stolen it from Soren and that's how the Ender crystals were still in tacked, they cheated!

"I'm afraid so." Soren said sadly, not denying it. "Understand, when I found that blasted block, we were nobodies. But with it's help, we became stronger, faster. We could do so much more! The other had no idea what I was doing, yet the more I used it, the more we came to depend on it. I knew it was only so long before someone would find out. So, I concocted a plan, I would use the Command Block to blink the Ender dragon out of existence, Securing our status as legends, forever."

"I looked up to you! How could you lie like that, to the whole world? You're all cheaters!" My eyes stung with tears that I didn't want to let fall, a part of my brain didn't want to believe it but there was no getting away from what I had just been told.  
The greatest heroes in history were a lie, not only had they not defeated the Ender dragon, a story every person knew and believed in, but Soren had said that they used the Command Block more than just that time. My heroes were frauds and what was worse, was that we still had three Wither storms to destroy and now no heroes to do it with. "Soren, how... How could you?" I couldn't help it, I let my tears fall. Reuben came to me and I scooped him up in a tight hug.

"... Jesse, I.. All I can say is that I was a fool."

"So you finally admit it." I turned to see Ivor standing in the door way with Lukas and Olivia behind him, they wore matching looks of disbelief and sadness. Gabriel was also there, he looked ashamed of himself even though he had no memory of doing this at the moment.

"Soren... How could you?" Olivia repeated me, her voice was weak and I could see it in her face that she wanted to cry as well. To her, Ellegaard was a symbol, someone who kept her going for her dreams, and now not only was she dead, but also a lie.

"Hoe long have you been standing there?" I asked, wondering how much they'd heard. I wiped my eyes.

"Long enough that they heard the whole thing." Ivor told me, walking up to Soren.

"So we're liars? All of us?" Gabriel asked, I bet that wasn't a nice thing to find our about yourself.

"Yeah, I think you are." Lukas answered him.

"You didn't think you could keep it a secret forever, did you Soren?"

"Is this why you left the Order? Because Soren lied?" I asked Ivor.

"Because they all did! Soren, Gabriel, Magnus and Ellegaard, they all agreed to keep it a secret,"

"And you!" Soren shouted back at him, "You agreed to stay quiet too. In exchange for all of our treasures." Just when Ivor wasn't looking like the complete bad guy here.

"... I've technically never told anyone. Jesse discovered the truth on her own." True, Ivor had kept up his side of that deal.

"So this whole thing, this Wither you unleashed, has all been to teach the Order a lesson?" Lukas made a horrifying connection.

"To teach the word a lesson!" Ivor corrected him, "to show you who the Order really are."

"Wait, what!? How is that any better?" I'd put Reuben down, and at Ivor last comment sadness left me, the space it left was filled by anger. "You reveal their lies at the expense of the world itself!?"

"Look, my Wither plan obviously backfired."

"YA THINK!?" Olivia shouted, throwing her arm in the air.

"I didn't know we'd end up with three of those things tearing the world apart."

I'd lost it by this point, not even bothering to keep my voice down or hold back my words, "Well, they are! And while we stand around here talking about your dysfunctional Order of liars those things are still out there, wrecking the world. So stop trying to get one up on each other and actually do something, the world needs heroes right now, not frauds!" The room was silenced by my little outbreak but I didn't care; my heroes were liars and Ivor had created a world destroying monster that had split into three just to show said world that they were liars. What the hell? What the actual hell!?

Soren coughed, "Jesse's right. Destroying that Command Block is all that matters anymore."

"How ironic that the best thing the Command Block gave us, was the very means to destroy it." Ivor said, moving to the enchantment book on the display. I guessed what he meant by that was, that the book had been absorbing the Ender crystals power all these years, which was only possible by removing the Ender dragon instead of killing it.

"Spare us the poetry, it's not your strong suit." Soren told him as Ivor collected the book.

"So the enchanting book, what do we do with it?" I asked.

"You craft a weapon then put it on an anvil." Ivor explained and handed me the book. The binding on the book looked a lot like the Command Block's pattern, brown with cream, though no symbols were floating around it. I guess it had to be open for that? "Follow me, I'll show you."

Before Ivor could leave Soren called to him, "Ivor, I'm sorry, about everything."

Ivor took the apology to heart it seemed, "Yes, well, it doesn't matter now." He quit the room and we all followed, heading back into the treasure room, leading me to another room in his lab while my friends waited just outside. "Grab some ingredients and craft a weapon, then I'll show you how to enchant it."

The room was wider than it was deep and again made of stone, a few pieces of the floor either side of the door had been replaced with lava in a symmetric pattern. In front of me in a line were; a chest, a crafting table and an anvil. Behind those, lining the back wall were eight armour stands and they weren't empty, each holding an amazingly beautiful and from the looks of them, well crafted armour set.  
Reuben came with me to investigate what was in the chest. I found diamonds and enough to make a sword, sure there were other weapons I could craft, but a sword was designed for fighting and did more damage. There were also some sticky pistons and redstone blocks in the chest that I put into my inventory, just in case. I moved to the crafting table and crafted myself a sword.

"Awesome! I've never owned a diamond weapon before!" I exclaimed, giving it a few practice swings.

"Just wait, now you need to enchant it." I nodded and followed Ivor's instructions, I'd never enchanted something before. It seemed simple enough, you needed to place a weapon and an enchanting book on an anvil, luckily we had all of those things.

"Behold! My enchanted diamond sword!" I held it up and Reuben oinked excitedly at it. The blade was a light blue since it was made out of diamonds, the grip was the typical brown leather with a little bit of diamond on the bottom, or the pommel. The cross-guard, the bit between the grip and blade, had turned a shiny gold after I'd enchanted it, with a glowing red stone in the middle. See, I knew my stuff when it came to fighting and weapons.

"Yes, that should do the job nicely." Ivor commented, making me feel proud with myself. I was glad that I'd done a good job on my first ever enchant, especially since it was such an important one. "But, if you're fighting those Wither monsters head on, you'll want better armour too. I enchanted these for the Order, they're about as strong as it comes. Even able to withstand TNT, any preference?"

Now this was a hard decision but one that I was so happy to make. I would keep Ellegaard's armour with me in my inventory and display it, after all, she did give her life to save the world, she deserved respect even if she had lied about the Ender dragon.

There were eight sets in total, each a different colour and style; black, red and gold or blue and black, maybe the green set with spikes on the shoulders?  
I finally decided on a purple set. The bottoms were black along with the boots, heeled, clearly made for females. Maybe this set was made for Ellegaard? The sleeves, gloves and arm guards were also black but the shoulder guards were purple with a black outline and spikes. The chest plate was nearly entirely purple except for a black stripe down the middle and a lighter purple gem at the top, the same light purple colour ran along the bottom, in between black.

"Ah, Dragonsbane. Even the Ender Dragon would've fled from this in terror! A fine choice." Ivor explained to me as I put the armour on over my normal clothes.

"How do I look?"

"Ready for action!" Ivor answered, "you can take some for your friends too." That was kind of him, mind you it was his fault we were here in the first place, I picked out a set for Axel and Petra, then left the room to tell Olivia and Lukas the good news.

"Wow! Cool armour Jesse!" Olivia said in awe getting up from the floor and I struck a pose.

"Thanks! And there's plenty to go around, go choose some!"

"Wait, really?" She asked.

"Of course, they're all hand crafted and enchanted by yours truly." Ivor said. Lukas and Olivia thanked him as they went to choose their own sets.  
The Order members; Soren, Ivor and Gabriel had moved into the treasure room and were now talking about how we might be able to get to the Command Block to actually use the sword, I decided to head back to see if Lukas and Olivia had chosen their armour yet.

Lukas came out of the armoury just as I was walking towards it, clearly this was a difficult decision for Olivia. He'd chosen himself a silver set of goggles which matched the shoulder and wrist guards and also the plating on his black fingerless gloves. Black sleeves and chest plate with orange in the middle finished his top half. Around his waist he'd found some sort of belt with orange and blue attachments, it looked useful. Grey bottoms with silver plating and brown boots finished him.

"Is this freaking sweet or what? You picked out a nice set, it looks good on you." I couldn't help it, I had to let my excitement over the new armour and enchanted sword out, I was sure my face was just a giant smile right now.

"Heh, thanks." He said a bit sheepishly, "but I think yours suits you more, Jess." Lukas reached out a hand, ran his fingers through my hair, down my cheek and came to a stop at my chin, raising my head to meet his eyes. Reuben nudged the back of my leg, which caused me to step forward out of reflex and into Lukas, who wrapped his other arm around me and gave me a smirk which I knew caused me to blush, hard. The best pig in the world then left, heading into the armoury behind us. My arms were on his chest as he brought his head closer to mine, he whispered against my lips, "no interruptions this time." We closed our eyes at the same time and our lips touched, I could get used to this I thought. I felt his hand move to the back on my head, fingers tangling into my hair holding me to him, as if to say that he was going to decided when this was over. That, crossed with the fact that Olivia could walk out at any point and catch us, well it just made my body tingle. My hands tightened on the fabric in-between his armour of their own accord and I couldn't suppress my voice, as that familiar haze settled in my mind. I could feel Lukas's satisfied smile against my lips. He broke the kiss but didn't move his head back or remove his hands from me, I opened my eyes slightly and met his blue ones, watching me. I moved a hand up his chest, to his neck and cheek and he breathed my name, the short version he had taken upon calling me, no one else called me Jess, but I found myself liking it that way. I could see it in his eyes that he wanted more which caused me to bite my lip. He took his hand away from my hair, moved it to my lip and whispered a warning "don't do that", it wasn't a bad warning, by the tone in his voice it sounded like I was teasing him. I stopped biting my lip and he ran a finger along it. My lips parted, my breath heavy, I wanted more too.  
I heard Reuben oinking to me that Olivia was finally done. Was there a stage higher than 'best' friend? Because he deserved it, so much.  
I took my hand from his neck and used it to take his away from my lip, I gave him a weak smile and he responded to that with a 'damn it all', under his breath. He let go of me and I, him. It wasn't that I wanted to hide it from 'Liv, but more the fact that I still didn't know what I felt myself, I wanted to sort that out before anything else.

I also wanted Lukas to know that it wasn't my idea to stop there, "Reuben says 'Liv is done."

It took him a while to get what I was saying, "... Oh! I forget that you can understand him so well."

"It's weird, isn't it?" Olivia said to Lukas as she finally emerged from the armoury.

"It's not weird." I grumbled at her, which caused them both to laugh and me to sulk.

Olivia had chosen a set that reminded me of Ellegaard, of course she'd choose that set. A brown hat with gold rimmed goggles were now on her head, her black hair still in it's pigtails. Red shoulder guards with white sleeves, brown gloves and gold trim. The chest plate was a lot like mine but different colours; black with a gold stripe up the middle and across the top, with a red gem in the middle. Black bottoms and brown boots finished off her new look. She looked like she was about to burst at the seams at how excited she was.

"Aw look at you." I knew she would know that I was thinking that she looked like a little Ellegaard.

"Heh, thanks Jesse." 'Liv said, blushing a little.

"Now let's get back to Soren's fortress and see how the Endermen are doing against those Wither Storms." It had been several days since we'd left Axel to lure the Storms into Soren's fortress, and it was going to be several more until we returned. I hoped he, along with Petra and Magnus, were doing all right.

* * *

We all but raced back, shaving a good two days off our return time and heading for Soren's mountain fortress. Before we'd even arrived you could see two of the Storms floating above it ominously, the other had separated but could still been seen. We stopped our horses a little ways from the storms, they reared and kicked, not wanting to be in such close proximity to them and I couldn't blame them, I was sure that none of us wanted to be either, not really.

"Shouldn't the Endermen have dismantled those things by now? Or am I just confused again?" Gabriel asked.

"It's not you, something's wrong." Ivor agreed with him.

"Jesse! Over here!" I turned towards the voice and standing on a hill above us was Axel, Petra by his side.

"Axel! Petra! You're okay!" I ran to them as they were making there way down to us and I gave them both big hugs. I couldn't begin to describe how relieved I was feeling that they were both fine, the rest of the gang came to greet them as well.

"You guys made it! Nice freakin' armour by the way." Commented Axel.

"Heh, thanks. I have some for you two as well." In Ivor's armoury I'd managed to find a glass helmet that looked exactly like Magnus's, and I knew that I had to have it for Axel. Unfortunately, Axel was so big that I couldn't find anything else that would fit him but some brown boots, at least that would get him out of his sandals I thought.

"Nice! I was feeling a little left out. You picked well Jesse, thanks!" And he put on his helmet and boots.

For Petra, I'd kinda winged it and chosen a blue and gold set. She normally wore blue so guessed that she'd like this, plus, it was a full set from helmet to boots, which suited a warrior like her. The helmet was mostly blue except for a gold circlet that went all the way around. Her shoulder guards were blue with a gold trim, black sleeves and blue gloves with golden wrist guards. The chest plate was mostly blue with gold trim along the bottom, which also came up from the center in a V shape. A light blue gem was placed in the middle at the top. Her bottoms were black, with blue and gold trimmed leg guards and matching shin guards, gold boots were the last part to her new armour.  
She took it from me and thanked me, agreeing with Axel on the good choice I'd made, but didn't move to put it on.

"Hey, Petra. Are you all right?" Olivia asked her.

"No, I'm barely hanging on, I should've stayed in that cave."

"Except, you saved my butt like a dozen times."

"He's exaggerating"

"I bet he's not for once." I smiled at Petra, "where's Magnus?" Did I want to know the answer to that?

"Oh man... You won't believe it." Axel started, he didn't seem upset so that meant that Magnus was still alive, "See, at first it all went down like you said, ride for Soren's fortress etcetera etcetera. But then we realized the Endermen, they're not angry enough. I mean, some of them are, but a lot of them are just standing around, moving blocks... You know, being Endermen."

"They kept the main Wither storm and that little one busy, but the other small one started attacking us." Petra added before Axel continued,

"Yeah, so Magnus ran off to fight that thing, all by himself."

"He's fighting a Wither storm, alone!?" Said Ivor, saying what we were all thinking.

"Yep. Kept saying something about paying for the mistakes of the past. Whatever that means." Oh, that's right, Axel and Petra didn't know the truth about the Order yet, my that was going to be a fun story to tell them.

"If a fellow member of the Order... Of the Order of the..." Came Gabriel, suddenly sounding sure of himself.

"Stone." I finished for him.

"... Is out there fighting, then I belong there with him!"

"Gabriel, no. I told you, you're not who you think you are." Soren tried reasoning with him.

"My name, is Gabriel the Warrior!" He declared with a cry and ran off.

"And, he's running the wrong way." Axel told us.

"Oh, for goodness sakes, I'm not letting that idiot get himself killed." Everyone was a little shocked when Ivor ran after him. He cared really. "Gabriel! Come back here!"

Soren sighed, "without the Command Block, none of them stands a chance."

"Say what now?" Axel asked.

"I'll explain later, it's a... Long story." I told him.

Just then, Petra started coughing and sat down. She looked awful, her complexion wasn't far off being paper white and the purple mark on her arm was now, her arm. Me and Lukas both moved down to her,

"Guys... I can't do this anymore. You need to go on without me."

I took her good hand, "Petra, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pushed you, you needed to rest and I just didn't listen."

"It's not your fault, I wanted to come. Please, just destroy that Command Block."

"Believe me, I will."

"So, what's the plan now?" Axel asked.

"We need to find a way for me to use this." I told him as I took out my new fancy enchanted diamond sword, I was still pretty smug about owning it.

"Whoa! That is, without question, the coolest thing I have ever, ever seen!" I knew Axel would appreciate it, Petra agreed with him.

We were all silent for a moment, there was nothing else to say, no more delaying what had to be done.  
The giant Wither storm and the smaller one had their beams scanning the ground, Endermen were angering it, removing pieces and teleporting away, but there just wasn't enough of them focused on the task at hand. It was up to myself, Reuben, Olivia, Lukas, Axel and Soren now, to find a way to expose the Command Block, and get to it, without getting killed. The two storms were still above what was left of Soren's mountain fortress, a large area was now flattened ground and water, thanks to me flooding the place, was pouring out, forming scattered ponds and lakes.  
The group and me made our way up the debris and through the doors to the fortress, only to find the room behind it completely gone, flattened. The main storm was right above us, from this distance it could easily beam us or hit us with a tentacle, luckily it was being distracted by the few Endermen that were attacking it.

"We need to get more Endermen focused on the Wither storm." Olivia suggested.

"How do you make Endermen focus? I can't even make myself focus." Axel asked her, making a good point. How could we do that?

"We shouldn't be here! None of this is going according to plan." Soren had started backing up, away from the storm.

"Soren, what are you doing?" Lukas asked him.

"I, uh... You know, I've really enjoyed meeting you all, but..." And he ran away. The rest of us watched the space where he'd been, questioning what had just happened.

"So much for the 'mighty' Order of the Stone." 'Liv said sarcastically.

"Forget them, it doesn't matter. We have work to do." I told her, turning back to the Endermen, "we need to get those Endermen to attack it." Below us in the debris of the mountain, stood a large group of Endermen, they were everywhere, probably trying to escape their flooded home I thought. They were stood about, not doing a lot, ignoring the storm and moving blocks aimlessly. One wandered into purple beam and roared to the sky, the beam sucked it up and it started pulling blocks from the storm, annoyed that the storm had interrupted whatever it was that he was doing. I started my way down to the clearing where the Endermen were, my friends questioning my safety and sanity. "The beams!" I shouted back to them, "make them chase you into the beams!"  
It took a beat from them to follow me, I was pretty sure they were now questioning their own safety and sanity.

A beam was heading for a small group of Endermen, this would be easy. Giving each of them a direct stare caused them to roar at me, but the beam got them first and I ducked out of the way. With so many of them stood about, we had plenty to work with.  
There was an Enderman stood holding a stone block, I ran up and smacked it out of his hands, claws? "How do you like that?" He looked at his now empty claws then roared at me, he was mad, now for a beam, and just like that one caught him. The beam then followed me, crap. I ran, dodging under Endermen, causing them to get caught in it instead and then took a sharp left turn and it stopped chasing me. It was a game of stare and then lead into a beam, Endermen teleported which meant that we had to get close to the beams for them to, but it was an easy enough game.  
One Enderman was stood directly in front of a beam so I shoved him into it, he couldn't right himself in time and beamed up. Endermen were tall, black lanky creatures with purple eyes, and I think they teleported everywhere because they were so tall. You never saw them walk much.  
Reuben ran up next to me and I asked him to give me a little help, he oinked back and stood between an Enderman and a beam. I pushed the Enderman hard and he tripped over Reuben, falling into the beam. I gave him a quick pat before continuing.  
A beam was coming up behind some Endermen, so I gave them all a stare and slid under them and past the beam, only just. I was a little surprised myself at how well I was doing.  
I decided to see how much progress the Endermen had made and moved to a highly, slightly safer area and my friends came to join me.

"Jesse, look! It's working." Olivia pointed to a large hole that the Endermen on the storm had created.

"That hole is big enough to get inside of." A keen observation made by yours truly.

"Now we just need to find you a way up." Thanks for reminding me, Axel.

"Or, build you a way up!"

"That's it Olivia! What do we have?" I asked.

Between use we had; redstone blocks, sticky pistons, repeaters, smile, cobblestone, wool, fireworks, TNT and a single minecart.

"That's got to be enough to make something. If we use the TNT on say..." Olivia started thinking.

"The minecart?" Lukas offered.

"What about those pistons?" 'Liv remembered

"We do have all that cobblestone." Axel added.

"Guys, check it out! We build a cobblestone ramp lay down some track attach the TNT to the minecart and launch it off the ramp like a rocket." I blurted out without taking a breath.

"Aha, heck yeah! I love that idea." I knew that Axel would agree with it, since it involved TNT and things blowing up.

"Look out!" Olivia suddenly shouted, a purple beam had found us. I managed to dodge out of the way, along with Lukas and Olivia to the other side, but it caught Axel and started pulling him up. Olivia grabbed his leg but it made no difference, the beam started to lift her u as well. I followed her idea and grabbed onto her leg, but the beam wasn't giving up.

"Lukas, I need a hand here!"

"I can do better than that." Lukas told me and he shouted at the Wither storm, moved away from us and pulled out the fireworks we had. He started setting them off which caused the storm to become distracted and the beam left Axel alone, both him and Olivia landing on me in a heap.

We got ourselves up and Olivia said, "Fireworks! Good thinking Lukas!"

"Let's build this thing!" Axel shouted.

Lukas took it upon himself to distract the storm from us and I told 'Liv to keep an eye on all of us while me and Axel build the rocket minecart.  
We used the cobblestone to build a ramp, a few wood blocks were mixed in from what we had left over, then added some minecart tracks and a ladder so I could climb up. Axel set the minecart in place and attached the TNT to it.  
I just noticed that we were stood in the remains of the Orders old temple, where Ellegaard and Magnus had gone separate ways and where Ivor had trapped us in the library, all before we even found Soren.

"Quick! Climb on." Olivia's voice pulled me out of my thoughts, "and Jesse, I know you can do this."

"So do I." Lukas agreed.

"We all do!" Said Axel for everyone who wasn't here.

"Thanks guys, it means a lot."

"Now go demolish that Command Block." Axel ordered.

I gave him a serious face with a salute and climbed into the minecart. The TNT blinked into life and blew up, shooting me down the ramp. It was too late when I noticed Reuben who was stand at the bottom to the side, he'd jumped into the minecart with me. "Reuben! This is no place for a PIIIIG! AHHH!" The minecart had finished it's run on the tracks and launched skyward, it fell from me in mid air but I made it into the hole in the Wither storm.

* * *

I landed inside the storm, hitting some blocks stomach first and bounced to the floor, landing on my back. Over the pain in my body I heard Reuben land with an oink, much like a squeaky toy you give to a dog. I lay there for a moment afraid to move in case something was broken, but to my amazement, nothing was. I held my head and sat up to see Reuben stood next to me.

"Reuben, you shouldn't have surprised me like that." He looked down, feeling sorry for himself. "On the other hand, I'm kinda glad not to be alone right now." I said this because the place I was in well, warm and welcoming wasn't how I'd describe it.  
It was dark, the only light was faint and purple. I couldn't tell if the place was made from obsidian or another sort of block, they were all black, purple dust floated about in the air around me and strange glowing mushrooms were dotted about. There was no obvious way to go so I simply started walking away from the opening I'd come through.  
It was chaos, blocks everywhere, like someone had set of a lot of TNT and this was the result, Reuben stayed close to me the whole time. It was cold in here which caused me to shiver.  
There was a different shape stuck into the side of the wall and upon further inspection, they turned into people and people I recognized. They looked purple as well, their eyes glowing white. The 'room' then started to move, turning ninety degrees clockwise causing me and Reuben to be flung about, bumping into more blocks.  
Unfortunately, this caused Reuben to now be eye level with one of the wall people and it scared him, he ran off. "Reuben, wait up!"  
I started after him only to have the 'room' turn another ninety degrees, sending me into a wall, I tumbled down into another before hitting the floor, I was sure that every part of me was now bruised. Disorientated, I got to my feet and headed back after Reuben. The room started to shake again and I ran, tripping over into a big opening, but luckily not having myself flung about into blocks and walls this time. I lifted my face from the floor to see Reuben standing right in front of me.

"Whoa!" In the middle of this giant opening, was the Command Block, sat on a mound of obsidian blocks with arches forming over it. The rest of the room was well, a big opening. No smooth part was anywhere as the blocks were forming it into a sort of 'dome', the ceiling had a giant chasm, going up further than I could see. On the floor was what looked like purple redstone, so purplestone? It wasn't in a particular pattern but it gave off that purple dust I'd seen earlier.  
I stopped gawking at the place and got myself up, yet again, from the floor. "There it is Reuben."  
Drawing my new sword, I stood in front of the Command Block, "we meet again, Command Block. Now it's time to destroy you." I swung hard, my sword meeting the block with a loud metal crashing sound, but it didn't break the Command Block, my sword only cracked it. The storm roared loudly and the arches started to move, they weren't arches at all, but smaller tentacles that thrashed at me, trying to defend the block. I stepped back to avoid them and fell off the obsidian mound. "Reuben, I think we made it angry." My little piglet was squealing in shock over what was happening.

A tentacle came lashing out from the wall and I dodged under in, then another and another, they had us backed up, I had to get through them somehow. "Reuben, whatever happens, we have to destroy that Command Block. You understand?" He did, Reuben turned and gave his dragon roar to one of the tentacles. The one to my side started wiggling at me, trying to catch me or knock me down. I dodged and I lost count of how many times I did before I couldn't and had to defend myself with my sword. My diamond sword cut clean through the tentacle with no effort at all, like it was cutting paper. "Whoa! Why didn't I always carry an enchanted weapon?" I heard Reuben oink for me and I dashed over, slicing his tentacle in half as well. My golden sword had no effect on these things, but this sword was amazing, I could do this. "It's doing everything it can do defend the Command Block, which means I need to do everything I can to destroy it. Awesome weapon, don't fail me now." I'd climbed back up the obsidian mound and started to slice away at the tentacles. I hadn't cut them all but I had a clear strike at the Command Block so I took it. Still it didn't break, but the crack was deeper, one more hit should do it I thought.

To make things even harder for me, the room turned a full one-eighty, causing me to hit, tumble and roll my way down. The Command Block was now on the roof. "This thing just won't die!" I sighed, "All right, new plan. I'm gonna climb up there and use one of those tentacles to swing toward the Command Block." It was the only thing that I could, I had no blocks to build, nor time to mine some. I made my way to a wall that looked climbable and started up it, telling Reuben to stay put this time.  
I was nearly level with the tentacles as I jumped for a black group of blocks sticking out from the wall, this would be a good place to jump from. The group of blackness started to move before I'd even stood up completely, it shook me off and I hit the ground, far below, hard, the wind was knocked right out of me.  
I didn't have time to get it back as the blackness was actually a mini Wither head, with working teeth and it's own purple eye beam. Another appeared at the other side of the room, "where did those come from?" I dodged beams as Reuben came running up to me, "I thought I told you to stay put!" He oinked a warning to look behind me, a purple beam was heading my way. I dodged one, then the other and found myself at the edge of the roof chasm, which was now the floor. It was such a long way down, if I fell I was dead, no ifs ands or buts about it.  
One of the beams then caught part of a tentacle I'd sliced off and sucked it up, an idea hit me. "I know exactly how to get up there. The beam!" Reuben oinked at me in disagreement, he didn't like that plan. "Hey you!" I flapped my arms about, trying to get one of the heads attention, "Reuben, stay out of sight. If anything goes wrong, I don't want you caught up in it." The beam caught me, raising me off the floor and towards the head. Just before it could eat me I stabbed it in the eye and using it's mouth, I flung myself on top of it's head, then for some stupid reason, looked down, I immediately regretted it.  
I drew a deep breath to mentally shake myself and jumped as hard as I could to one of the tentacles, I'd caught it and started to climb up to get closer to the Command Block. I felt something wrap around my stomach and yank me backwards, it was a tentacle and the force of it caused me to drop my sword. I was now hanging upside-down by a tentacle, on a very high ceiling with no weapon, "no no no no!" What was I going to do? I spotted Reuben walking over to my sword from my swinging place on the ceiling. "Reuben, I need your help! Remember how we used to play fetch?"  
He did, grabbing the sword in his mouth he started making his way towards me, up the wall I had climbed earlier. I was trying to dodge the mouth that was snapping at me while watching him, "I believe in you Reuben!" He made his way up to a new tentacle that I hadn't seen coming out from the wall and ran along it towards me, "Jump! I'll catch you!" And without a single shred of hesitation or doubt that I'd miss, Reuben jumped towards me. I caught him and took the sword from his mouth, "you did it, I knew I could count on you! All right, time to put an end to this thing once and for..."  
The head on the wall that had been snapping at me, had now caught Reuben in it's jaws and was pulling on him, "Reuben! Hang on buddy..." Just when I thought I'd wiggled him free, the tentacle that was holding me pulled me back and I let go of Reuben. Everything I had ever felt I was feeling at the moment, like watching a cartoon in slow motion, I watched as Reuben fell, squealing, the mouth trying to catch him on his way down. I couldn't look away as Reuben disappeared right into the endless chasm beneath me. "NO!" I screamed and turned myself towards the Command Block, hitting it with every once of anger I had in me, "Argh!"  
The Command Block shattered into loads of tiny pieces and the storm roared in pain as the tentacles went lax and dropped me. I followed Reuben, down the chasm.

Pieces of the Wither storm were breaking up and falling around me as I fell from the sky backwards, I had no idea where the ground was but I knew that I was going to feel agonizing pain any time soon. I was proved wrong as my body slammed into water, the weight of my armour caused me to sink but I couldn't find the strength to fight against it. Just before my world went black I thought I saw someone... Lukas?

* * *

Lukas POV

We all watched Jesse as she launched her way into the storm, I was glad that Reuben had gone with her but would of felt a whole lot better if it were me instead.  
The three of us did what we could outside, which was luring more Endermen up to the storm to weaken it. It was long before it roared for no reason, but there was a reason, Jess must of been doing what she did best. Another roar was heard before one of the heads outside stopped functioning, but still it didn't die. It felt like an eternity waiting outside, there was nothing we could really do and I was sure I wasn't the only one holding my breath.  
Finally, the storm roared again, and this time it was so loud that the three of us had to cover our ears. The Wither storm began to break up, it's tentacles went slack and fell with loud thuds, shaking the ground. The purple beam had stopped as the heads cracked and broke into pieces along with the rest of it's body. Jess done it.  
But where was she? Jesse had to be falling as well, there was no other way down from the storm and if she hit land from that height... I didn't want to think about it. I kept my eyes to the skies in search of purple and black armour, amongst purple and black Wither storm.

Something caught my eye, something shining in the brightness of day now that the storm was gone, it was a sword. It clattered to the ground in front of me and I picked it up, but it's owner was nowhere to be seen, Olivia and Axel had caught on to situation and were also searching the sky, minding big chunks of storm as they did so.  
Had Jesse hit the ground already? Just as panic began to sink in I spotted a shape much smaller than the bits of Wither storm, it was her. I thanked Notch and anyone else that existed above as she hit water and not land, and I climbed my way over. Jesse still hadn't surfaced by the time I'd made it to the waters edge, was she injured or unconscious? I didn't give it a second thought and dove right in.

The water was a lot deeper than I thought it was, I started to doubt myself as to whether I'd seen Jess fall in or not, but then I saw her, eyes closed and the weight of her armour not letting her float. Reaching out to her and pulling her close, I swam back to the surface.  
The second we reached air Jesse gasped at it and it was the best sound I'd ever heard. Swimming to the edge, I passed Jesse to a waiting Axel and climbed out myself.

"Jesse! Are you all right?" Axel asked her. Olivia was behind him with her hands to her mouth.

"R.. Reuben, wh... 'cough' where?" Jesse spluttered, trying to stand on legs that didn't listen. She fell and used Axel as a steady to heave herself back up. There was panic in her eyes as they darted about looking for Reuben. The Endermen around us started disappearing, leaving a lot of empty space.

"I thought he was with you?" Olivia answered shaking.

Petra came running into view, "Guys, look! My sickness is gone!" It really had, her skin was back to it's normal shade, there was no horrible purpleness on her arm and she had the energy to run again.

Olivia called to her from where she was standing, "Petra! That's great news, I'm so happy for you!"

I'd taken hold of Jesse as Axel went to see Petra. Jess was breathing heavy, still looking about frantically but clutching at me as I don't think she had the energy to stand on her own.  
Then from the silence, tiny squeals could be heard and Jesse immediately moved towards them. She tripped and I helped her back up but her focus, her eyes, didn't leave the spot from where the noise had come from. There, lying on the ground near some blocks was a small pink shape.

"Reuben!" Jesse suddenly had enough strength in her to make it over to him, she knelt down and went to touch him but hesitated, her hands stopping just above him. Reuben was squealing in pain as the rest of our friends came to join her.  
Olivia gasped then knelt down next to Jess, putting a supportive arm on her back, I was stood on her other side while Petra and Axel were behind.

The little pig raised his head to Jesse slowly, "You're a hero, you know that Reuben?", her voice was shaking, "you just helped save the whole world." When he didn't reply, Jesse asked him to say something desperately. He gave a weak squeal, struggled to sit up but couldn't and flopped back down.  
Jess let out a shaky breath and finally placed her hand on Reuben giving him a stroke, "it's okay boy, I'm here." You could tell that she was trying her best to hold back tears, she knew just like the rest of us what was happening. "I'm here."  
Reuben squealed something quietly to Jess before he laid down his head and his eyes shut. There was a second where everything was silent and the wind stopped, not even a bird made a sound, and then Reuben poofed, leaving only a drop, a single pork chop.

Olivia immediately began crying as Jesse called his name, "R... Reu.. Ben? I... No..." She burst out in tears and flung herself into Olivia who hugged her back, the two of them in floods of loud tears. Axel had turned and walked a little away while Petra stood, not knowing what to do with herself. "It... It's my fau.. 'Hic' fault. I sh... Should of.. Co.. Could of." Jesse cried, repeating herself over and over again.  
I wanted to help, to comfort her, but my body just wouldn't listen to my brain. I stood watching the scene. I knew that Jesse held her friends above anything else and that Reuben was, had been, her best friend. I looked to what remained of him, the pork chop, and bent to pick it up. I was sure that Jesse would want to keep it.  
I moved myself next to Jesse and Olivia, who still held her tight, and placed a hand on Jess's back. She looked up, right at me, eyes already red and moved one hand from Olivia to my arm, "L... Luk... It's my... My..." her words came out in sobs and she never finished repeating herself again as her cries took hold again.

* * *

We'd been sat about the remains of the Wither storm for a while. Olivia had moved herself and Jesse to leaning against a stone wall, she kept one arm around her the whole time and Jesse hadn't stopped crying. Petra and Axel were helping the survivors that had fallen from the storm and not perished somehow.

I, myself, stayed next to Jess who was leaning her head on Olivia's shoulder, who in turn her stroking her hair. Olivia had managed to stop crying, mostly, and was trying her best to comfort Jesse.

"Lukas? No way, man." Well that was a voice I hadn't heard in a while, Aiden.

I looked up to see him, along with the other two Ocelots, my friends Maya and Gill, with him. It took me a while to register that they were actually here, alive and talking to me, but they were and I was overcome with happiness that they'd all survived the storm. As I moved to greet them and make sure that they were real, I remembered Jess. Giving her shoulder a squeeze I told her, "I'll be back, I promise."

* * *

Jesse POV

I was sure that my heart had broken and that my mind had stopped. If I wasn't already completely soaked I would of been by the amount I cried.  
I couldn't open my eyes, or stop them from crying but I wanted to, because all that I could see in the darkness was the moment Reuben fell, over and over. It was my fault.  
I, dropped the sword. I, couldn't keep hold of him. I, should of protected him. I was the worst friend, the worst person and what made it worse, was that Reuben, in all his pain, had told me that he loved me and that he was glad that he had known me and that I was his best friend.  
I barely registered what was going on around me, I knew that Olivia had moved me and that Lukas was by my side but the world was a hazy, blurry mess that I just wanted to go away. At some point Lukas had left and when I noticed, it started to feel cold and empty even though Olivia was still hugging me.  
I heard something that sounded like someone calling for help and so did Olivia, she looked to me and I told her to go. Of course she was reluctant, at first she didn't move an inch, so I told her to go and help again. Standing, she said that she would be right back and for me not to go anywhere, but the second she was out of sight I got to my feet and headed out into the openness, amongst the pieces of Wither storm. Tears still falling from my eyes and my legs shaking, actually my whole body was, I felt so weak and cold as I wrapped my arms around me, but I had to go...

Maybe Reuben was waiting for me.

* * *

Lukas POV

"Lukas, have you seen Jesse?" Olivia asked coming up to stand with me, a worried look in her eyes.

I'd been catching up with my friends and filling them in on what had happened, which was a pretty long story. We'd exchanged hugs and by now my brain was definitely sure that they were all real. It was great to have them all back with me, I don't think words could describe how happy I'd felt when Aiden had called to me.

"She was with you, wasn't she?" I already knew the answer to that question or Olivia wouldn't of asked it.

"I left only for a second, to help someone and now she's gone, I can't find her. I'm really worried, I don't want her to be alone right now." Olivia looked like she was about to fall to pieces.

"Right, I'll help you find her."

"Why do you care?" Aiden asked me crossly.

"Is that really necessary?" Olivia snapped back at him, shocking me along with Aiden.

"He wasn't talking to you, girly." And Maya joined in.

"Guys, really? Olivia just... Keep looking, give me a second and I'll join you." I let out a sigh and agreed with Olivia's statement. The world had just been saved by these guys, well mostly Jess, and they were still being liked this? Sometimes I wondered if the settings inside their brains were broken.

"Thanks Lukas." Olivia gave me a weak smile and left to continue her Jesse search.

"So... The second we're 'dead' you get chummy with them?" It was always them and us with Aiden. He'd been my friend for years and when we we're younger he was never like this, I never understood what had made him turn so bitter.

"It's not..."

"Kinda looking that way dude." He interrupted.

"Look, a lot happened between then and now. Jess all but saved my life and it's been pretty much running for our lives since Endercon." Wow, Endercon, that felt like a distant memory now.

"Did you even look for us?" Maya chipped in, directing her charming tone towards me now.

"I tried." Okay that was a sort of lie, but I'd wanted to, every single day. "It wasn't exactly an easy task."

"But that's okay, because you had 'Jess', right?" Mocked Aiden, picking up on the name I'd started calling her. I opened my mouth but shut it again, thinking it best if I not say what else had happened between me and Jesse, that would create a whole different type of storm, but I did feel a mischievous smirk come to my face thinking about that. "Guess I was right, and here I was thinking that we were friends Lukas."

"The world has just been saved and all you guys can do is mock the ones that did it?" I snapped, "you know what? I don't need this, I'm fed up with it. My new friends need my help. The option to join is right there, now excuse me..." And I stomped off in search of Jesse.

I guess it had been a long time coming really, but it probably wouldn't of happened if I'd never gotten to know Jess, her friends and Petra more, but I was glad that I had. I didn't want to lose contact with the Ocelots, they were good people if you looked past the spiky outsides. My mind thought back to how Axel had treated me that very first night we'd spent in the treehouse after the storm, and in all fairness it wasn't any different. I didn't think his outlook of me had completely changed, but Jess had said that he'd treated her pretty rough in the beginning so there was hope, maybe there still was some with the Ocelots too? I had to believe that.

After a pretty grumpy search of the area I'd come up empty, with not a single Jesse found, she'd obviously walked far enough away to not be easily seen. I looked out at the remains of the storm, wondering where she could be hiding, or why, when the colours of the debris made me start thinking. They were purple and black and so was Jess, mostly, and maybe she'd gone to take her heartache out on the remains. With nothing to lose in giving it a shot, I set out into the openness where the storm had fallen to pieces and started looking.

I would have probably missed Jesse if not for her sobs. She was sat on a pile of obsidian, knees to herself and head resting on them, making herself as tiny as possible against some more obsidian. Her back was towards me.  
Around were some smaller tentacles than what I'd seen on the storms and what looked like tiny fragments of the Command Block were everywhere, there must have been hundreds of them. This must of been the place inside the Wither storm where Jesse had destroyed the Command Block.  
For a moment I stood just watching her, did I help or let her have some space? What decided it for me was that when I thought about walking away, I hated myself, how could I do such a thing when someone I cared about was in pieces? I walked up the slope and sat down in front of her, my back leaning against the blocks.

"Jess... What are you doing out here?" I kept my voice quiet and I thought maybe too quiet when for the longest time she didn't reply.

"I ca... Can't find him Lukas, he's not here." Was the heartbreaking reply that she gave me. Jesse didn't move, her voice was weak and rough, catching between sobs.

"Jess... You know... He's..." I put my hand on hers and she was freezing cold. I didn't want to say what I was going to then, Jess knew deep down that Reuben was gone, she just didn't want to believe it right now and I didn't want say it out loud, hurting her that bit more.

Jesse finally lifted her head, leaning it against the obsidian blocks next to her and looking at me, "It's my fa... Fault, Lukas. My fault, h.. How could I?"

"Jess, don't..." I was going to say that she shouldn't talk like that, but I had no idea what actually happened inside that storm, and if Jesse really did think it was her fault then surely telling her that it wasn't, wasn't going to help any. That's how I'd feel anyway. I motioned for her to come into a hug, "come here. You can tell me what happened later, okay?"

She sniffed a bit before moving herself to lean against me. My right arm was behind her holding her to me while my other held her hand, she leant her head on my shoulder and took a deep breath out, her tears subsiding. "what... What am I going t.. To do?"

"Well, whatever you need to I guess."

"But I need him..."

"I know, I know."

Jesse didn't say anything after that and I felt no need to either, there was nothing you could really say to someone who had just lost their best friends and thought it their fault to help ease the pain really. We sat there for a long time before a familiar voice broke the silence.

"Lukas what are you doing?" It was Aiden and he didn't look too happy about me comforting Jesse, who rose her head to look at him.

* * *

Jesse POV

I don't know how long I'd been sat in the debris of the storm before Lukas found me. I was enjoying being alone but found myself not minding him interrupting. He asked why I was sat out here and I told him honestly that I'd been looking for Reuben. I knew in my heart that it was pointless, but part of me still held onto the idea that it wasn't real and that part had won.  
Somehow, Lukas knew exactly what to say, or not in this case. He didn't correct me and remind me that Reuben was gone, and he never said that it wasn't my fault. I wasn't going to let anyone tell me otherwise, it was and that was that. When he asked me to come over for a hug I did and my tears dried up, we sat together for a long time before I heard a voice call to Lukas, asking him what he was doing.  
It was Aiden and I had to actually look at him to prove to myself that he was really stood there, just at the bottom of the pile of blocks that we were sat on.

"Aiden? Hey look Lukas, your friend is okay." I said.

"Jesse, you..." I looked to Lukas who gave me a sad smile that I couldn't understand.

"We're leaving, are you coming or is she more important now?" Aiden said, sounding a little vexed.

"Aiden, please. Not right now." Lukas said with a sigh, sounding a little worn out.

"It's okay Lukas, you go with him." I told him.

"But Jess, you're upset."

"I'll be okay, really. I don't want to cause any problems." And I really didn't. Lukas clearly meant something to me now but it was also clear that Aiden didn't approve of me and that was, well no, it wasn't okay, I didn't like it, but it's just how it had to be. I wasn't going to come between their friendship.

"See? She said it's fine, so let's go." Aiden had climbed up to us and pulled Lukas to his feet, much to Lukas's protests, who then yanked his arm away. The two stared at each other.

"Lukas, go on... Please." I begged with him, don't make me feel worse than I already do, which would be quite a feat right now. He looked at me for a second before Aiden took his arm again and started dragging him away, Lukas didn't put up a fight this time.

I watched as Lukas was pulled away by Aiden, blue eyes looked back at me and not being able to stop myself, I cried again and this time, it wasn't just for Reuben.


	6. S1E4-5: Reuben will be Remembered

**Episode Four (and a half): Reuben will be Remembered.**

* * *

Olivia POV

We'd made it back home in about a day and to our amazement, bits of home were still standing, although when you think about it, it does make sense. The Wither storm was created at Endercon, which wasn't close to home really and then it had chased us to the end's of the overworld. It was nice to have something to return home to.  
Jesse rode on the back of my horse, Soren and Ivor to one, Gabriel and Magnus to another with Petra and Axel having their own. The towns people making it back in their own ways.  
The Ocelots had showed up and immediately started where they'd left off, they'd set off before us with Lukas. It was a shame really, because I did genuinely like him now but I was sure that my mind wouldn't be changed about the others, don't get me wrong I was glad they were okay, just because I didn't like them doesn't mean that I'd want bad things to happen to them, but it seemed that they were set in their ways about us, regardless of what Lukas thought about us now.

No one mentioned the elephant in the room on the ride back, Reuben's death. I'd had a couple bursts of tears, even Axel did once, but Jesse pretty much hadn't stopped crying since I'd found her in the midst of the Wither storm debris. Lukas had come to let me know that he'd found her with what can only be described as hatred in his eyes. Aiden was with him, practically dragging him back to the other Ocelots so I guessed that; Lukas had found and kept Jesse company, Aiden had been, well, Aiden and now Lukas was being taken away against his will. The Jesse I knew wouldn't of wanted to come between a friendship and probably made him leave, and it was clear that Lukas hadn't wanted to. It was a shame that the chances of us remaining friends was slim to none now.

Between us and the Order of the Stone, we'd started to get the town back in order. It was going to take a very long time to rebuild it all, including Endercon and the surrounding area, but we'd get there.

I'd sent Axel off to see if Jesse's treehouse had survived, since she really was up for being a leader right now. People kept coming and thanking us for helping them, saving the world, and/or asking 'are you Jesse? The one who took down the Wither storm?', it annoyed me more than anything. Any other time and I would of blushed and forgot myself, me, a hero? That was laughable, no way was I the sort of person who could be one, but I guess we kinda of were now, in other people's eyes at least. The reason it annoyed me was because it was really getting to Jesse, who I'd adhered myself to since finding her, she just wanted to be out of the limelight to mourn Reuben, so when Axel returned saying that her treehouse had indeed survived, I was overjoyed at the news. Before we could leave however, two people I'd been thinking about this whole time shouted to me from the mess of people, it was my mother and little brother.

I think I did a double-double take before I sprinted across and threw my arms around my mother, I gave her a kiss on the cheek before doing the same to my little brother.  
As you can imagine, I was ecstatic to see them alive and well after the mess of things that had happened. My mother, being a mother, made a fuss about me, asking why I had such nice armour on, and did that mean that it was true that I'd helped destroy that crazy monster? My little brother, Samuel, was half my age at eight and I knew that he was always looking up to me. He was always asking me questions about lots of things, sometimes I think it's down to him that I'd fell in love with redstone engineering, after the twentieth 'how does that work 'Livvy?' You start to learn about these things so you can be prepared. The two of them were the reason I'd kept fighting and Jesse was the one who kept that dream alive for me, which reminded me that I'd left her.  
I told my family that my friend needed me right now and that I would fill them in later, my mother told me that she understood but also wanted me to come home, so we could have our first post-monster meal, and when she said home she meant the temporary one that they were staying in, my real home had barely survived unfortunately. I reluctantly agreed, my mother had always been one of those very motherly and protective sorts so I knew that there was no point in arguing, I wouldn't win.

After my family had left I returned to Jesse who was sat looking very vacant by a tree, where I'd left her this time. Axel was with her, guarding her from the grateful townsfolk. I relieved him of his duty and told him to go find and help Petra. He was as reluctant as I'd felt earlier with my mother, but I whispered to him that I didn't want to make a big fuss of things, we needed to give Jesse some space and that I was going to be staying with her, he finally agreed. As I was helping Jesse to her feet, Lukas surprised us with a visit, he was on his own thankfully.

"Hey, I'm glad I found you guys." Greeted Lukas, still wearing his armour.

"Lukas! How are you doing?" I asked.

"Don't ask."

"Okay... Well I'm glad that you got back safe at least." I told him honestly and not asking further why he wasn't doing so well.

"Thanks," He replied with a weak smile, "you guys too. Hows...?" He trailed off.

"As well as you'd think"

"I'm right here guys." Jesse suddenly said with a flat tone.

"Sorry Jesse, we didn't mean anything by it. We just don't want to make things worse by reminding you." And I didn't, I wanted to try and protect her from as much as possible.

"Don't need reminding, it's not something I'm going to forget." She told us in the same flat tone. Me and Lukas shared concerned looks.

"Aw, come here." I pulled her into a hug. "Well I was about to take Jesse home, her treehouse is still in one piece luckily. So she can get some space and rest. I was thinking of staying the night too."

"'Liv... You don't need to do that." J

"I do and I'm going to. Come on," I took Jesse's arm and started towards her treehouse, "see you later on, okay Lukas." I didn't end it as a question as I guessed that his appearance meant that we were going to continue being friends, I hoped at least.

We'd reached Jesse's treehouse, which was exactly the way we'd left it before we'd left for the Endercon building competition. I helped Jesse out of her armour and placed it on the stand at the far end on the room, I then sent her upstairs for a shower and waited in her room. She came out wearing her pink piggy pajama's, pink shorts and a tank, she looked like she'd been crying again. I gave her a hug and asked if she wanted me to make anything for her to eat, my kitchen skills were slim at best but I'd give it a shot, Jesse replied saying that she wasn't hungry and I didn't push it, I wasn't expecting her to be after watching her best friend die, so I dried and brushed her hair for her then tucked her into bed. My plan was to wait until Jesse fell asleep and then leave, heading home to my family.

* * *

Lukas POV

I watched as Olivia took Jess home, I wanted badly to go with them, but part of me knew that that probably wasn't going to happen, I knew the second I saw Aiden that the friendships I'd been building were over.

After he'd dragged me away from Jesse and we'd returned home, I'd pretty much given him the cold shoulder. I wanted to hate Aiden for what he did but I couldn't, we were friends and I was thankful that he'd, that they'd all survived of course, so not being grateful for that was wrong of me, but the way he'd reacted to me being with them was out of order.  
Okay Axel wasn't my biggest fan, but Jesse and Olivia had looked at me with a clean slate and I was glad for that as I'd found good people in them, I'd gained two new friends, hell, I'd kissed Jess. The thought of which had me smiling to myself and that was met by a nudge by Aiden, "what's up with that face?"

"Nothing."

"Well, this place isn't going to rebuild itself." I didn't reply, not trusting myself to not snap at him. It wasn't his fault he was so unreasonable I tried to reason with myself, I sighed, it didn't work.

So, me and the Ocelots had been rebuilding our house since we'd returned, we all had our own family homes, that we'd also been fixing up, but this was our hangout, somewhere to escape. I felt like I needed an escape from the escape, so I excused myself and headed off for a wander around, that was when I'd found Jesse and Olivia. I didn't quite feel up to returning yet so continued about town.

* * *

It was late when I finally did return, our place was more or less finished from the looks of things. "Out with your knew friends?" Was the greeting I received before I'd even closed the door. I ignored Aiden and headed to find food, I had hoped that he'd of let it go by now, clearly I was wrong. "Right, well while you were 'busy', we thought that we'd help rebuild the town. Use our skills for the greater good and all that." Aiden had followed me and was leaning against he doorway.

"How considerate of you." I deadpanned to which Aiden snorted. "What?"

"Oh nothing, it's just funny hearing that word coming from you right now." He scoffed.

"What is your problem?" I shouted as I spun around to face him, "the fact that I have friends other than you guys?"

"No."

"Well then tell me, because I'm at a lose here." I snapped to which he didn't reply, "Aiden, we've been friends for a long time, don't make me question that."

"The world nearly ends and instead of finding us, you make yourself a little girlfriend. Hard not to be offended Lukas." Jess wasn't my girlfriend, but wait, Aiden hadn't said a name, my mind filled in that space itself. "So I guess by your silence that it's true, that's cold man."

"Me cold? After everything they, we did to save the world and kill the Wither storms and you can't even give them a chance? They're good people. I don't know what shut you off from everyone but it needs to stop, because you're going to drag us all down and that isn't something that I want." I brushed past him and beelined for the door,

"Lukas, wait..."

"No, sort yourself out then tell me to wait. In the meantime, I'll be elsewhere." I gave the door a good slam behind me, took a deep breath of the cool night air and set off to Jesse's treehouse.

I didn't have too many options as to where to go. I didn't want to go home and have my mood effect my family and who even knew where Petra was right now. So that left me with; be alone or Jesse and Olivia.  
I wanted to be there for Jess, make sure that she was okay and do what I could do help, as she'd done for me. Also, what Aiden had said was playing on my mind and I knew that seeing her would also cheer me up, so that was the choice I went for.

There were no other buildings around Jesse's, she lived in a thinly spread part of the towns forest. There was a path and lights, you could also still see town, but I did wonder why she chose to live here, I'd have to ask one day.

No one came to the trapdoors when I knocked, maybe they were both asleep? On trying the door though, I found it to be unlocked which was strange. I poked my head through to find the room in darkness and silence.  
I'd never been in Jesse's home before, obviously, it was simple yet looked cozy, the sort of place you'd imagine her to have. To the right was a doorway, which looked like it led into a small kitchen and in front of the trapdoors were sofas and a low table, the back right had a set of stairs that curled around to another floor. A couple armour stands were stood next to the space to the left of the stairs, one of which held Jesse's new armour, so someone had to be home I thought.  
I shut the trapdoors behind me and locked them quietly, I just then realized, was I breaking in? I called out into the empty room and no one replied, after poking my head around the kitchen door to find no one again, I headed upstairs. The stairs curled around themselves and would of been facing the trapdoors if I were downstairs. There were only two rooms upstairs; a small bathroom to my right and a bedroom directly in front, of which I didn't poke around of course. Still finding no one and starting to find the situation a little odd, I made my way back down.  
I spotted a lamp on one of the bookcases and switched it on to make sure I wasn't missing something, although what I could've been missing I didn't know but it was worth a shot. I heard something move. "Jess?"

For a moment, no reply came and I thought that maybe I'd just been hearing things, but then a small voice from the back of the room replied, "Lukas?" It was Jesse.

Going over to her, I found Jesse sat against the stairs in the space with the armour stands, with a blanket covered in tiny carrots completely covering her. She was tiny, no part of her uncovered by the blanket and hiding behind a bookcase, no wonder I'd missed her. I put a hand on what was probably her back, "Jess, what are you doing sat in the dark all alone? Where's Olivia?"

She sniffed, her voice sounded rough, "I overheard her talking with her mother earlier, about going home tonight. So I pretended to be asleep and then she left."

"Jesse, why?" I asked her, keeping my voice low.

"She hasn't seen her family since the storm, I bet she worried so much about them. So 'Liv should be with them."

"I see your point, but then who's going to be with you?"

"You're here?"

I opened my mouth to reply but couldn't, if Jess wasn't upset that would of been such an adorable thing to say. She was still wrapped up in the blanket and I wasn't about to pull it off of her. I noticed the empty armour stand and made use of it, then sat down next to Jesse, if I was going to be staying then wearing my armour all night wasn't going to be comfortable. Jess didn't say anything, she wasn't crying as such, but definitely had been by the sounds of her sniffs.

"Do... You want to tell me about what happened?" The blanket moved but didn't respond. I knew that it was a touchy subject but just ignoring it wasn't going to help. Jesse was blaming herself for what happened and I wanted to know before I decided how best to help her. She never replied and we sat in silence for what was probably an hour before I asked if she needed anything, no response, I asked if she minded me grabbing a drink, no response. I hoped that she wouldn't mind and helped myself to the kitchen. It was indeed very small but had so many things crammed into it, I guess you could add cooking to Jesse's list of talents. I returned to her with a glass of orange for each of us and sat back down.  
What felt like another hour went by of nothing but silence, I wasn't bored or fed up but I needed something to do until Jesse felt like talking to me. So I replaced myself on to the closest sofa, it was facing away from Jess but I was here if she needed me. I placed my drink on the table and my jacket on seat across from me, I had found some sort of redstone book, which I assumed was Olivia's by how complicated it looked, and set about reading it.

* * *

"Can I join you?" I all but jumped out of my skin by the sound of Jesse's voice, who was now stood next to me.

"Sure." Sure? What is 'sure' you dork? It was her house, her sofa, of course she could sit there.

Jesse placed her drink on the table, it was mostly gone, which was something and in the dimly lit room I could see that she wasn't in her normal clothes, but pink shorts and a tank with a pig on it, pajamas I guessed. Her hair was a bit dishevelled and she had the blanket around her shoulders.  
I quickly sorted myself out, putting the book on the table and scooting over so she could sit next to me. I angled myself so that I was sitting diagonally with one arm on the back of the sofa, trying to not look like I was here to interrogate her and more so to comfort her. Jesse sat down and put her legs up against her, wrapping the blanket back around, but at least I could see her this time.

For a while she didn't speak and instead stared at her glass on the table, then Jesse sighed and closed her eyes, but her voice sounded more together this time, "I... It is my fault, I'm not going to let anyone tell me otherwise."

"Tell me what happened." Jesse looked to me, her eyes catching the glow from the light before resting her head on her knees again. "Jess, I can't help if I don't know how to."

"I know, I just don't... I dropped the sword."

"Dropped the sword?" I encouraged.

"Inside the storm."

"Try from the beginning and take your time, I won't interrupt." She gave her glass another stare and I could see that she was trying to sort her mind out.

"It was horrible in there Lukas. It was all dark and cold, you could see people frozen in the walls, and the room turned around, it threw me and Reu..." Jesse stopped before she said his name and hid her face in the blanket, she started to cry again, "I c... Can't. I'm sorry"

"Hey, you don't need to apologize. Come here." She looked up from her hiding position, her voice caught in her throat a couple of times before she crawled over to me. Jess made herself as tiny as possible in the space I'd created by being diagonal, her head was on my shoulder as I wrapped the blanket, and my arms, around her. I'd seen her fight countless monsters and even charge right into the Wither storm, but right now Jesse felt so tiny and fragile. I could feel her shaking against me.

"This was his favourite blanket... I wish he was still here..."

"I know."

"I'm a terrible friend."

"No, your not."

"Yes, I am. You don't know what happened."

"Then tell me." One of my hands had found it's way to her hair and was playing with it idly. My mind briefly went back to what Aiden had said to me, if only he were here right now, actually no, scratch that.

I heard her voice catch as she tried to calm back down to continue her story, "the r... Room turned and threw us about, lots. I ran and came to a bigger room it was all empty apart from the Command Block in the middle in some archway thing. The roof had a big chasm... I shou... Should of paid more attention to it." Jess stopped for a little while, I assumed to regather her thoughts so that they made sense. Her right hand was gripping my shirt. "I thought that after hitting the Command Block it would be destroyed, but it wasn't. The arch way was actually tentacles and some more came from the walls, but I took them out. That sword cut through them like paper. I hit the Command Block again but it still didn't break and then the room turned upside down." A pause, "My plan was to climb up and swing across to attack it again, I'd damaged it the other times so thought that one more might just be enough. I did climb up but then feel back down, what I was stood on was one of those heads with the eye beam. I used the beam to get back up and stabbed it in the eye, then jumped across to a tentacle but then... I, why did I drop the sword?" She tried her best not to cry again but it wasn't working, "another tentacle grabbed me and I dropped the sword. I was hanging upside down and the head thing was snapping at me and Reu.. And Reuben actually got the sword and made his way up to me. Oh Lukas, he was so brave, he even jumped right across to me and I caught him, but the head thing grabbed him and I tried so hard to get him free but it didn't work and we both let go and... And I watched him fall down the big chasm..." She barely stopped to breath, trying to get it all out before she couldn't again. "After I hit the Command Block again it broke and then I fell too... And then you saved me." She was in complete floods of tears now and coughing, I leant forward to pass her her drink and she sipped at it while wiping her eyes. Jess placed her empty cup back on the table and came back to me, "It... It is my... My fault. I dr... Dropped the sword. I should of... Of held on. No matter what."

After hearing her explain what had happened inside the storm, I understood why she felt that way. I think I would of as well, in fact after Petra returned to us, I'd blamed myself for her getting sick and I'd continued to do so until she was completely better. But at the same time as all of that, I did want to say that it also wasn't Jesse's fault, by the story she'd just told me, it was that tentacle and head thing that had been the cause. So what could I say right now that was what she needed to hear? "I... I understand Jess, I do. I won't say it, but you shouldn't completely blame yourself. It sounds like a lot happened in there."

Jess had sniffed herself to not crying again and raised her head to look at me, we were inches apart. She called my name in such a quite voice I'd of missed it if she hadn't been so close. "Jesse..." I warned her, this wasn't a good idea, but it was too late, she'd closed the gap between us and kissed me. I froze, my hand stopping on her hair.  
As she pulled back, barely, our eyes met. Every part of my brain was saying don't, but it was my body that was in control as I put my hand back on her head and pulled her back in. Her hands were on my neck until she moved them, one down my chest and the other into my hair. The arm that was around her left and found a new place at the top of her thigh, she moaned into me and it caused me to want more. We were on the same wave length, as the second I'd pushed against her mouth, she let me in. We came together countless times, and as my hands tightened on her I could feel myself pushing further with every kiss, every time she let my tongue win, it was harder to focus.  
We finally needed to breath and I thought that I'd been given my chance to not take this further, that was until she called my name, completely out of breath with eyes low and hazy, reflecting the same desire that I was feeling. It caused something in me to snap and I used both my hands to bring her back to me, not giving her a say and invading her mouth again. Jesse moaned but is wasn't in protest, as her hands found the bottom of my shirt and disappeared under it and I moved her to sitting on my lap. Her hands were cold and it caused me to gasp as they explored my chest, her touch felt good and I wanted more, so much more of it. Jess pulled away to take a breath and I only gave her as much time as it took to call her name before bringing her back to me. I ran one hand down her leg and the other up her back.  
I think I deserved some kind of award for managing to stop myself, as Jess moved to pull my shirt over my head I broke the kiss we were in, holding my head to one side, then grabbing her hands and holding them. I tried to catch my breath and even with my eyes closed, I could feel Jesse watching me. "Th... This isn't a good... idea. You're upset... I'm not... Not going to take advantage... Of that."

Jess didn't say anything and I risked a look. She was indeed watching me, her breathing as heavy as mine. I thought that she was going to kiss me again when she brought her head in but instead rested her forehead against mine, "O... Okay."

Neither of us moved as we tried to control our breathing. I was probably holding Jesse's hands a bit too tightly, but I felt like if I didn't then they'd be back on her. I was mentally kicking myself for moving her to where she was now, right above me. Did you know that Jesse can read minds? Because just as I'd thought that, she moved, back to sitting next to me. Her head was back against my shoulder, my hand in her hair like it was second nature to be there. I let my head fall back against the sofa and took a long shaky breath out.

The room slowly feel back to being silent. What Aiden had said before about me finding a 'little girlfriend' and my mind thinking of Jess without hesitation made a lot of sense to me now. I was nineteen, I'd had girlfriends, but I'd never felt the way I did with them compared to just then. My mind had practically stopped working and it didn't matter how many times I kissed her, I just wanted, needed, more. Somehow in such a short period of time, Jesse had found a place in me and I found myself more than happy for her to remain there. She was possibly the greatest person I knew, even risking her life to save the world just for her friends, and when Aiden had disturbed us out in the debris of the Wither storm, Jesse was happy for me that he was alive, even after everything he'd done to her and her friends. Well that ended. A determination set in me that I was not going to let the Ocelots continue the way that I had before.

Jesse's hand gripping my shirt again pulled me out of my thoughts, she murmured my name. "Jess?" She didn't responded because she had fallen asleep against me, just as she had done all those days, weeks, ago in Soren's wool world. I kissed the top of her head and felt a small amount of mission accomplished, I'd managed to get her to sleep after everything she'd been through.  
After a while, having no sense of the time, I had to move. So I wiggled free of Jesse as slowly as I could and laid her down on the sofa, covering her back up with Reuben's carrot blanket. She moved about, then made a face and pulled the blanket around her, was it a bit conceited to think that maybe she was cold without me next to her? Smiling at her, I stretched and yawned, suddenly feeling pretty tired myself. Jesse had another long sofa in her treehouse which I made myself at home on, taking off my shoes and lying across it. I found the page I was reading in that redstone book and continued, at some point, I fell asleep.

* * *

Jesse POV

I blinked my eyes open to a dimly lit room. It was still dark outside although I had no idea of the exact time.  
After my mind caught up with my eyes, I realized that I wasn't in my bedroom but rather downstairs, on one of my sofas, I was also looking at another which was occupied by a sleeping blond, Lukas.  
I shot up using my arms, remembering what had happened. I was sure that I was blushing hard behind the hand that I was using to cover my face. Thank gosh he was asleep, but what was I going to say to him when he wasn't? I felt a little ashamed with myself by how I had acted. I was upset and feeling empty, not only had Lukas listened to what I had to say before judging me, but he'd also said exactly what I'd wanted to hear and then I'd practically thrown myself at him. I felt lucky to have him, that he'd been the better person and not taking advantage of the situation, I respected him a lot for that and would have to apologize when he did wake up. Wait, lucky to have him... Lukas wasn't mine. I got up from the sofa quickly and quietly then headed upstairs to my bedroom, where I proceeded to sag against the inside of the door, my brain was a mess. Right Jesse, get a blanket for Lukas and head down then go back to sleep. I somehow set myself to autopilot and did exactly that.

The next time I woke up it was actually morning, or at least bright outside from what I could see from the single curtain that was now open in the room. I yawned as I sat up and rubbed my eyes, they hurt, a lot, but that was to be expected after you'd spent the best part of the day, and night, before in tears. I flopped my head against the back of the sofa and gave in to my aching eyes, shutting them.

"Good morning, Jess."

"Hnn?" I peaked an eye in the direction of the voice. Lukas was sat on the sofa opposite me, reading something. He put the book down as I spoke, "It's morning, no mornings are good." I was normally an early riser sure, but that didn't mean I liked mornings, I was definitely a night owl.

"Ha, not a morning person?" He laughed at me.

"I like night time, they're pretty, with the stars and the nice cool air. All mornings do is interrupt your sleep, so rude."

"Do you want me to get you anything. A drink? Breakfast?" I opened both my eyes and looked at him, the blanket I'd put over him last night was neatly folded next to him. Lukas was my guest yet offering to get me breakfast? Mind you, I was always telling my friends to make their-selves at home, I was glad to see someone was listening.

"But... Are you sure?" He nodded and got up, heading for my kitchen. " Anything to drink and cake." I called after him.

"Cake for breakfast?" Came a voice from inside my kitchen that was busy looking in cupboards and making noise.

"I'm sad, my best friend died, therefore I get cake." When in doubt, have cake. After what Lukas had said to me last night about not completely blaming myself and also what I'd said to myself about him being mine... Well I was definitely in doubt.

"Right, right." I yawned a thank you as I found my way out of my blanket trap and he handed me a glass and a plate with cake on it, laughing at my struggle with the blanket. Our eyes met briefly and I knew that I blushed. I averted my gaze quickly to my plate, smooth Jesse, and he returned to the opposite sofa without saying anything, perhaps he didn't notice.

I tried to cover it up, "I'm glad you've made yourself at home here, Lukas. 'Liv still doesn't get that this is her home as much as mine... Apart from when she's subjecting it to another redstone contraption."

"Well, you were pretty upset last night, so I was more focused on you then how much of a bad house guest I was being." That caused me to blush again. I felt so awkward inside, the elephant in the room was staring at me, even though Lukas seemed completely normal, or at least he appeared that way to me.

"You're not a bad house guest, silly. You're welcome here any time, mi casa es tu casa."

"Jess... Thank you. I..." Lukas sounded like he wanted to tell me something but wasn't quite sure if it was the right thing to do. He was resting his elbows on his knees, head against his hands, thinking with his eyes closed. I was curious, but didn't push it. I found every bit of courage that I could muster and stood up with my cake. I plopped myself down, not softly at all, next to him, it caused him to look up suddenly and I offered my cake.

"Cake makes things better." He didn't reply.

I gave him a bit of an over the top suspicious eye to which he just laughed at, but it looked liked it had worked as he fell back on the sofa, arm across the back with a heavy sigh. "Jesse, I don't get you."

I twisted myself around to face him, "How so? I'm not that complicated, am I?"

"No, it's just... I'm supposed to be the one cheering you up, but instead you've done that for me, you told me that I'm welcome any time and even put a blanket over me last night, thanks by the way."

"Mhm, you were sleeping, so blanket." I left of the part where I'd also gone upstairs to hide in case he woke up.

Neither of us said anything else after that and instead watched each other. I wasn't so much staring into his eyes but more having a blank moment in my mind. I was trying to think of a not so awkward way to apologize for last night and thank him at he same time, but also I didn't want him to think that I didn't like what had happened. I admitted that to myself, I had to stop pretending or hiding from the fact that there wasn't something happening here. Thinking it over wasn't helping at all, all it was doing was making me more nervous. We both went to speak at the same time,

"You first." He offered.

I looked away from him, put my plate down on the table and sat normally on the sofa, wanting to sink into it, why had I not brought my blanket to hide in?

"I..." So I could face a world destroying Wither storm but not tell Lukas that I was sorry? That thought didn't help, it only made me feel pathetic, "I just wanted to say... Ah. I just wanted to apologize I mean, for last night." I shut my eyes tight and balled up my hands on my knees, there, I'd managed to say it. But when Lukas didn't reply I felt myself panic, "wait no, that's not what I mean, but I do, oh I don't know. No, right." I turned to face him, I'd say everything on my mind in a hopes that he'd understand my nonsense. "I feel like I should apologize for how I behaved, not what happened. It's like I was so upset that I was using you to fill in that emptiness and that makes me a terrible person, because I like you and that's not how I see you. I also want you to know that if it was someone else instead then I wouldn't of done the same, no wait that doesn't make sense, does it? Never mind, because I also respect you for what you did, it really means more than you could know. But regardless, I'm glad you came to see me and didn't give up when you found no one, and that you stayed and said what you did. Even if you think less of me or don't want to be my friend any more then at least you know. And if that made any sense to you then you're doing better than I am." I held my breath, whatever happens now then at least I'd told Lukas the truth, even if it was a giant mess of words.

For a while he just watched me, probably trying to make sense of all that I thought to myself, but to my amazement he started laughing, "You really should organize you're thoughts before you speak."

"Hey... I've been sat here trying to organize them since I woke up." I pouted at him as he continued to laugh at me.

"Heh, sorry. I don't mean anything by it, I just... Thought I was the only one thinking like that." He'd stopped laughing now and was playing with my hair. I noticed that he did it a lot, but it was nice, I found it sort of calming.

"Wait... So I was worrying, for nothing?" I looked down at the sofa, a little stunned at the situation, did Lukas just say that he felt the same way?

"S'not nothing." he said softly and lifted my head so that I was looking at him again.

Now, for anyone with a working brain, what crossed my mind at that point would sound completely stupid, ignoring last night and what we were literally just talking about, all I wanted to do was kiss him. I looked into his eyes, trying to figure out if he would find it okay considering, when he ran his thumb over my lip, "you really need to stop biting that."

"We'll have to find some other use for them then." I offered, throwing caution to the wind and risking it.

For a beat he stayed where he was, lying against the back of the sofa but that changed in a second, his lips were on mine so fast I couldn't react, I knew that I made a noise of surprise against him as he immediately deepened the kiss.  
Lukas was holding my head to his like I was going to try to escape or something, if I could of spoken right then, I would of assured him that I wasn't. My left hand came up to his arm, showing him that I was more than happy with the situation as I was now holding him to me.  
My other hand resumed where it had left off last night, under his shirt. He built and fought monsters on a daily basis, I liked what I'd found. He called my name between kisses, it held a warning, so I ignored it and said his back in a slight mock tone. I'd pushed my luck it seemed as he took my wandering hand in his own,

"Not yet..." He told me, slightly breathy. Yet?

"Well aren't you a tease."

"I'm sorry, I meant what I said last night, I just... You're the tease."

"I can assure you sir, that I have no idea what you are talking about." I feigned innocence and gave him my best puppy eyes.

"You, need to stop it." His voice not holding completely seriousness.

I giggled, "okay fine. You win."

"Thank Notch." He let go of a long breath that he was holding, he sounded a little relieved. Perhaps I was pushing it? But I couldn't help it, whenever Lukas was with me, my chest felt tight. Somehow he always seemed to know exactly what to say to cheer me up and despite our previous difficulties with our friends, he'd never joined in mocking us, that wasn't the sort of person he was and I admired that. Every time he kissed me it felt like everything washed away and it didn't matter, everything at that moment was right. I decided to shift the conversation along in an attempt to help,

"You had something to say as well?"

"Huh?" He blinked at me, his mind trying to focus on thinking now, "Oh right! Olivia came by this morning."

"Oh?" Maybe she came to see how I was doing this morning. I bet she was surprised to find Lukas in my house, I smiled to myself at what she must be thinking right now.

"I didn't want to wake you so we spoke outside." I thanked him before he continued, "She wants us to go and meet her later."

"What for?"

"She didn't say, but she's terrible at hiding things isn't she? It was all over her face, whatever it is, it's good news."

Well that had me curious, and us? What did she need me and Lukas for? I knew they got along but it wasn't the 'come hang out with me', sort. I chewed a finger while thinking about what it could be when a thought hit me, "Wait, outside?" Lukas blinked at me as if I'd ask the world's stupidest question, which I guess that I had, I explained, "I... Don't feel ready for that."

"You can't stay in here forever, Jess."

"Sure I can." I sighed and deflated, "I know, but outside feels big and there's people out there that want to thank me... I don't deserve that."

Lukas didn't reply back and we sat in silence for a little while. I tried to make myself small again by bringing my legs up and hugging them. I knew I couldn't stay inside forever, but everything felt so much harder to do right now. I hadn't finished my cake breakfast, my appetite was gone. Everything felt far away, like I wasn't quite awake, my brain was on but nobody was home as they say.

"You'll have to leave at some point, might as well get it over with?" I looked to him in a hopes to find some level of security. Lukas was right, I would have to leave at some point and the longer I stayed in here, the harder it would become. I'd also have him and Olivia with me, and anyone else that she'd invited along to whatever was happening. "Jess?"

I made a noise of dissatisfaction at the idea, "But..." I was getting frustrated at myself over how silly I was being, how Lukas was managing to be calm was beyond me. I messed up my hair, making a noise of frustration and stood up, "Right!" Then proceeded to march up my stairs.

"Jesse, what's wrong?" I heard Lukas stand and make to follow me.

"I need clothes for outside, so I'm going to find some." I informed him and he stopped following.

I headed to my bathroom first, to the right of upstairs. It was small, with a shower in front and everything else to the left. A door leading into my bedroom was on my right. I stared at myself in the mirror, I looked as confused as I felt, my hair was a mess and my eyes, you could tell I'd been crying for the last twenty four hours that was for sure. I washed my face, brushed my teeth and hair in an attempt to find an outside ready person under the mess. Not completely sure that it worked, I gave up and headed into my bedroom to find something to wear instead of pajamas, as comfy as they were. My usual of a white t-shirt with red sleeves, denim overalls and brown boots were put on right away. I found my yellow hair grip, it belonged to my mother but she's handed it down to me a while ago. It was small and golden, with a tiny little purple gem if you looked hard enough. I added it to the right side of my hair, I parted my hair to the right as well, the hair grip helped to keep the small pieces out of my face. Standing in front of the mirror I found a Jesse that at least looked prepared, even if the one inside wasn't.

I stopped before opening my door, the nerves finding me again. Looking to my bed, I wanted nothing more then to hide in it, I took a deep breath and threw myself out of the door, making sure it was shut behind me.  
The next task was the stairs, ominous things that went down. The first two steps were fine, but then I had to round a corner and I stopped, a little voice saying, 'there's a nice safe room behind you Jess, go to it'.

Lukas had heard me on the stairs and came to join me on them, "Jess, are you okay?"

"Yup, absolutely fine, couldn't be better." I told him but didn't move. "Who knew how hard it was to leave your house, heh."

He offered me a hand and I took it, finding it much easier to go places when someone was leading you. I just now noticed that Lukas had put his armour back on, I'd barely registered that he'd had it off. I looked to mine and he asked if I wanted to put it on before we left, I shock my head, telling him that I wasn't ready for that just yet.  
Lukas opened the trapdoors leading out of my treehouse and I stood looking at the gap, he wanted me to go first knowing that if he did I'd just run upstairs and hide. I sat myself on the edge for a second, before taking a deep breath, twisting around and heading down the ladder. Lukas followed right after me, locking my house behind us. No turning back now.

* * *

The morning air held a chill but wasn't what I'd call cold, it was crisp and refreshing, which annoyed me but I couldn't place why. I had no idea where we were meeting Olivia, I didn't really care either, just following next to Lukas. By the looks of things we were heading into what would be the center of town when everything was rebuilt, and I could see what looked like a temporary stone structure, like a mini temple, in front of us.  
As I'd expected plenty of people recognized us both straight away and started in our direction, I hid myself behind Lukas, holding onto his arm. Being the intelligent person that he is, he caught onto the fact that I wasn't up for socializing and managed to excuses us from the people both quickly and politely.  
We reached the strange new building, my feet practically running up the stairs to get inside. I felt like a bad person I was letting them down, that's why I didn't want to talk just yet, I needed a little more time to get used to things before my next big step.  
We poked around the not so big building and quickly found voices coming from a room. Upon the two of us entering, the talking didn't stop but it did hush. Everyone was here, the Order members: Soren, Gabriel, Magnus and Ivor and so were my friends; Axel, Petra and of course Olivia. Everyone in their amour, what was going on?

"You two finally made it." That was Magnus's way of saying welcome I guess.

"Jesse!" I was suddenly hugged by an Olivia, "how are you doing?"

"Reconsidering my choice to leave my treehouse. What's going on here?"

"No idea, Olivia seems to be the only one of us that knows." Petra came to my side and gave my shoulder a pat, her version of a hug and comforting words.

Axel was the next one to come and give me a hug, my feet leaving the floor a little. "Good to see you up Jesse!" 'Up' was right.

Everyone exchanged greetings before we all took seats about the room. We weren't exactly in a circle, the building had clearly been thrown together to fulfil a purpose then to look pretty. Olivia was having a hard time sitting still.

Soren started, "The four of us did originally plan to talk to you first Jesse, upon finding Olivia and asking your whereabouts however, she determined it better to not pester you."

"Get to the point, Soren." Ivor told him.

"I was getting there... The reason we asked you all here today is because we wanted to hand over our title as the Order of the Stone to those more deserving of it, to the five of you."

"And Jesse, we would be honoured if you would take the position of leader." Gabriel added.

Olivia finally exploded excitedly, she'd been trying her best to hide the news from us it seemed.  
Okay I definitely misheard that, for a moment there it sounded like they wanted us to take their place as the Order of the Stone. I knew that they weren't the heroes the world thought they were and the five of us had just saved the world from the Wither storm, the worst monster that had ever existed but WHAT!?  
I was busy staring at the floor, my brain ticking over the information but not being able to make sense of it, when Petra broke the silence.

"Come again."

"We want you five to become the new Order." Magnus repeated Soren like he was talking to a four year old.

"You can't be serious." Came an awestruck Axel.

"Oh, we can be, because we are." Said Soren as a matter of fact.

"You deserve the title much more than we ever did." Ivor added, I guess that they'd filled in everyone on the truth now then.

My mind was listening to them speak but none of it was really going in. They wanted us to become to Order and me to be the leader, why? My best friend died because of me and my lack of skill, why would they want me to hold such an important title? I was no hero. I couldn't, I wasn't ready for this. I stood from my chair, causing the whole room to fall silent and then left without saying a word. Lukas might still have the keys to my treehouse, but there was one place that I could go.

* * *

Olivia POV

"Something tells me that Jesse doesn't like that idea." Soren said flatly.

"I told you it was too soon for such news." Complained Ivor at Soren.

We all watched Jesse leave the room without saying a word. I had wanted to tell Jesse as soon as possible but now I found myself agreeing with Ivor, although it was too late to chance things now. I knew that once Jesse was past Reuben enough, then she would be thrilled at the idea.  
Lukas made to leave after her but I stopped him, saying to give her a moment to collect herself before we headed after her. Axel nodded in agreement, we'd known her for a lot longer than Lukas after all.

Axel, Petra and Lukas all shared the same stunned look of amazement at the news, I don't think it had quite sunk in yet, although to be fair, I more than likely had the same look when Soren had first shared the news with me. The room was filled with a lot of 'seriously's' and 'whoa's' while Soren explained what was going to happen.  
In a few days, we would hold a ceremony type deal where the old members would hand over the amulet to us. They were also planning to use the Nether Star, a purple four-pointed star with a dull glow, that dropped when Jesse defeated the Wither storm, to power a beacon based monument in the center of town. It would not only symbolize the hand over of the Order, but also our victory against the storm.  
The temp temple, as we were referring to it as, would also be built into a real one, a place to stand over time and for us to meet and hold any other treasures we may find. It would be behind the beacon monument so that you could see them both when you entered through the main gates we were planning on adding to the town.

"I still can't... Really?" Axel wasn't known for his grasp on words.

"Agh yes, really." Soren aspirated at him, again.

"Wow... Really?"

"Axel." I warned, "it's serious. I've already agreed on the condition that Jesse agrees to become leader. It wouldn't be right without her."

"Ditto." Petra agreed with a nod.

"No no, I'm down for that." Axel said, also agreeing. I shared a look with Soren who looked relieved that it wasn't another 'really?'

"Lukas, you've not said anything. What are you're thoughts about all this?" I asked him, he'd been silent since he'd arrived with Jesse. It was very shocking news though, so I understood his silence. Me, Jesse and Axel were good friends already, but he was the leader of another group, while Petra was a lone wolf, this must be a strange situation for them both to be in.

He was silent for a while before folding his arms across his chest, "well, it's a lot to take in, I just... I always looked up to the Order, until we found out the truth anyway." Said Order fidgeted in their seats, "of course I'm thrilled at the offer and will also accept but I agree, this wouldn't be right without Jesse." I had a feeling that was what he was going to say.

"So it's decided, none of us want to do this with Jesse." Petra summarized.

"It doesn't seem like she's too keen on the idea herself though." Magnus pointed out.

"She just needs some time, that's all. Just like any of us would in her shoes." I correct Magnus. We were all still pretty upset about Ellegaard's passing and that had been days ago now.

"Do you think... We should go after Jesse now?" Axel asked.

"She probably went home, it's more than likely where she feels most safe right now." Offered Petra.

"Uh, yeah. I don't think she did, not without these anyway." Lukas informed the group, holding out a set of keys at the same time, they were the keys to Jesse's treehouse. I guessed that he'd taken them so she couldn't run back and lock herself away, good idea, but now where was she?  
I took a moment to think as to where Jesse might have gone, while Axel held a not too happy expression in his eyes to the information that Lukas had Jesse's keys. I was glad that he was on our side now and that he'd become such a trustworthy person in such a short amount of time, we just needed Axel to think along those lines, especially since we were now becoming a big team together. My mind briefly wondered what the other Ocelots would make of this news, but that wasn't really any of my concern.

"I know where she is." I exclaimed, gaining quick head turns from everyone. Before they had time to question my idea I told them to come with me and left the room; Lukas, Axel and Petra following after.

* * *

Lukas POV

We'd all agreed to take the Order up on their offer for us to become the new Order on the condition that Jesse joined as well, but it was obvious that she wasn't as keen as us. I had to agree with Ivor about it being too soon, I knew the reason why Jesse blamed herself now so it made sense that she wouldn't want to take on more of the same, although I knew we were all thinking the same, Jess was the only one for that role.  
She'd left the room without saying a word and we knew that she hadn't gone back home, I wish I'd returned her keys now, not only so that we had a place to start looking but also because of what Petra said, that was Jesse's safe place. Olivia however thought she knew where Jess had gone, she was her best friend after all. Excluding the Order members, we'd all left to follow after Olivia, who headed outside and immediately towards the forest, although not quite in the direction of Jesse's treehouse.

So the three of us were led by Olivia to the lake near the edge of what we all consider to be town. A small waterfall fed the lake and there was a scattering of trees, it was a quite place, people did visit but it was usually peaceful.

"Ohh... Here. Good idea Olivia." Axel praised her suddenly catching on to where we were. While me and Petra still had no idea why Jesse would come here specifically.

"Why here?" I asked.

"This is where she met Reuben." Answered Olivia, making it all make sense now.

Sure enough, a Jesse shaped person was sat near the waterfall making herself look tiny, legs up and head resting on them, her back was too us. Olivia made the move of approaching her first.

"Jesse?" When Jesse didn't move or respond, Olivia sat next to her.

"I can't do it 'Liv."

"Aw, Jesse. We're no..." Petra interrupted Axel with a quite forceful nudge. It was a good move as I think he was about to say that we're not going to do this without her, pressure that I don't think would help right now. While the two of them glared at each other, I sat myself down on Jesse's other side, sharing a look with Olivia.

"I know that you can do this Jesse, and I know that future you will regret not taking this opportunity. Just, give it a think over before you decide, okay?" It was weird hearing such positivity come from Olivia, in the time I'd known her I wouldn't of thought of that word first when asked to describe her. I guess that Jesse's constant cheering had had more of an effect than she realized.

"Do you think Reuben would like it? I feel bad moving forward into something like this without him." Jesse asked no one in-particular. It seemed like she had given this some thought and did want to take the offer.

"He would want you to." Olivia told her and there was a silence for a while.

"I just... Don't feel like I know who I am any more." Jesse finally looked up and sighed.

"Well for a start you're my best friend and you're always cheering me on. Even after receiving that offer from the Order I still have doubts," Jesse looked to Olivia who laughed, "I can't help it, but knowing that you have faith in me, well, it makes me think that there's a reason behind that." Olivia explained, trying to reassure Jesse and remind her of how important she was to her.

"And don't think that I didn't realize that you were doing the same for me" Petra continued on Olivia's sentiment, "while I was sick you always took the lead on fighting and never told me to give up fighting the sickness. You even told me I was being a slow poke!"

Jess smiled, "well you were. Doesn't take that long to walk up stairs."

"See? You even kept your promise to me, even though I know you were having a hard time not being honest with everyone."

"You're the only person who ever believed in me about wanting to be like Magnus." It was Axel's turn now. "I know I don't have big brains like Olivia, but I'm strong and good with TNT. It was... Good to have someone believe that was all I needed to be... Well, all I needed I guess. Like it didn't matter if I didn't understand something, I still had something that I was good at." That was a lot of words to here coming from Axel.

It seemed like we were taking turns in reminding Jesse why she's so great, why we have some faith in her as a friend, which now that I thought about it is exactly what she needs, reassurance that she is a great friend and that what happened didn't happen because she wasn't. "I'm thinking the same as these guys, Jess. After everything that had happened and been said between you and the Ocelots, you never held that against me personally. I was shocked, but a happy shocked, when you came to speak to me at Endercon and even more so when you told me to stay that night in the treehouse after the storm." I could of said so much more about why I thought she shouldn't be beating herself up over the situation but thought better of it. I knew that Jesse hated secrets and would tell her friends what had happened between us at some point, but right now it could possibly cause arguments. I'd leave it in her hands.

"You've helped us all, Jesse. And not just us, but everyone in town." Olivia said, rounding up our long speeches.

"And saved all our lives a bunch of times." Added Petra.

"Even yours?" Axel asked, a little awe in his voice.

"Even mine." We all shared a little amazement at that. Petra was a fantastic fighter, and to think that Jesse was able to save Petra... Well it wasn't too hard to believe really, I'd seen Jesse fight.

"And now look, Petra and Lukas are going to join us and we're going to be the Order of the Stone. Isn't it just like... Whoa." Olivia said.

"Feels like it's too amazing to be true, right?" Petra's voice sounded as dazed as I'm sure we all felt.

"Thanks guys, really." Jesse paused, "can I... Be alone for a while please? I need to think."

"Of course." Olivia answered, giving Jesse a quick hug and standing. As we all left I pulled Olivia to one side, I had something to ask her. "What is it, Lukas?"

"Well, I was thinking. Do you think we should build something in town for Reuben, like a monument? Not just for Reuben, but for Jesse? Maybe it'll help her... Somehow? I still have his drop as well..." Which I felt very awkward in having, I still had Jesse's enchanted diamond sword as well, giving them back would be a bit tricky. The idea of building something to remember him by had just entered my mind as we were talking about why Jess was a great friend. Those were things we remember about her, "maybe having something real would mean Jesse wouldn't have to hold onto him so much, because there would BE something for him... If you see where I'm going."

"No no, I get what you mean completely. It sounds like a great idea. Maybe lets keep his drop somewhere a bit more private though? Instead of on display... That just doesn't sound right." Olivia both agreed and made a valid point.

"Agreed. Where and what should we build though?"

"Hmm. Well, we have the beacons being built in the center of town and our temple... Ha our temple, can't get used to that, but that's being built behind that. I think we should include it with those, since it's important. Jesse did say he helped save the world after all." And he had, I knew the story. "How about the other side of the beacons? So when you enter through the town gates, once they're built as well, you'll see it. All the pretty beacon lights behind him?"

"Not a bad idea. Now just what to built?"

"How about I leave that down to you? You're the best builder after all."

"Huh?" I blinked at her.

"Hey, I never disagreed with that fact, just... Never said it out loud when we weren't friends, you can't blame me for that." She folded her arms at me, making her point.

"I suppose I can't, but thanks Olivia."

"Well, I'm going to head back to the Order and fill them in, I'm sure Jesse will come around. Good idea again by the way." And with that Olivia was gone, heading back to town. I had no idea where Axel and Petra had gone but I assumed in the same direction.

After a thought, I decided that was probably where I should start, to see what area I had to work with for this build. I also had no idea what to build it with, there wasn't too many spare materials after the Wither storm. I made a plan; check out where I was building and then see what I had/could get, if I could, I'd make a start on it this evening.

* * *

I hadn't been keeping an eye on the time, all I knew was that it was pretty late when I decided to head home, or well, back to the Ocelots. I'd been avoiding them, I knew how they would react to the news about me joining the Order. It sounded like I was abandoning them but I wasn't, at least I didn't think so. We would still be friends and just me joining didn't mean that they couldn't be involved somehow too... Maybe I was being a bit too positive about the situation.  
About half way home I stopped in my tracks, Jesse was sat on the corner of a wall, looking in the direction of her home.

"Jess, what are you doing out so late?" I asked. She'd looked in my direction as I approached. I didn't join her in sitting.

"Well, the thing is, someone stole my house keys. His names Lukas, blond hair and blue eyes, I hear he's a member of the Order now, have you seen him?"

"Oh damn! That's right, I do. I'm so sorry Jesse." I'd completely forgotten I'd had them since this morning. "you must be freezing being out here all night." I immediately took off my jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders, sitting next to her.

"Aha, it's okay, really. I told this I like the night time, but thank you all the same."

"Why didn't you come and find me?"

"Hmm.. Well, I was just thinking really. It's not so bad being stuck outside."

"Thinking about...?"

"I'm not really sure."

"That makes no sense..." She laughed at my confusion but didn't say anything after that. She swung her legs out, seeming quite content to stay where she was. "So, first I can't get you out of the house, now you won't go back to it?"

"Hard to get into your house without keys..." She peered at me with raised eyebrows and then laughed, "I'm joking, it really is okay."

"Still, I'm sorry for forgetting that I had them."

"It's okay Lukas, really. But, I can go home now I suppose, although I'm not sleepy."

I stood up and offered my hand, "come on, home with you." If Jesse stayed outside she might see the monument that I was building before it was even finished. She looked at me, then to my hand and stared at it for a beat before taking it and standing.

I walked Jesse back to her treehouse, unlocked the door and made sure that I handed back her keys this time. She placed them on the table, switched on a couple of lamps and came back to the trapdoors, where I was standing.

"Thank you for allowing me back into my house." She gave me a sly smile.

"Jesse... I..."

"I'm just kidding." She cut me off with a laugh again, it was nice to hear after seeing her cry so much. I think we'd managed to get her back on the road to recovery. I would tell her to stop teasing me and making me feel bad about locking her out of her own house, but hearing her laugh about it made it not bother me any more.

"So, do you want me to stay again?" I had to ask, even if she was feeling better. I didn't want her sitting alone in the dark crying again, that was a horrible thought. Other memories about that night entered my mind without permission, I told myself that that wasn't the reason I was asking.

Jesse took a deep sigh, "well, as much as I want to say yes, I need to get used to the fact that I'm going to be alone in this house from now on, the sooner the better I guess."

"If you're sure?"

"I am. It's just how it is now." I watched as Jesse bit her lip, in an attempt to hold back the tears and she also made to hand my jacket back to me, I refused and she gave me a curious look.

"Keep it, that way you'll know I'll be back tomorrow." I thought that sounded like a good idea, so even if she did end up crying all night then at least Jess knew someone was going to be here in the morning.  
She didn't respond and instead held it against herself and blushed, dropping her gaze from mine, she was adorable when she was being shy. I smiled and took my jacket from her, wrapping it back around her shoulders, but I didn't let go. I used one of my hands to tilt her head back so that she was looking at me, "sure you'll be okay?"

"Promise." That was an important to word to Jesse so I knew that I could believe in it. I gave her a long hug and kissed the top of her head before leaving her treehouse and heading back to my own home.

* * *

Jesse POV

I waved Lukas off and shut the trapdoors, the silence in my house suddenly feeling very heavy. I wasn't going to lock the trapdoors, it helped having them unlocked now and no one came out this far anyway.  
I stood in the middle of the room not really knowing what to do with myself, first I thought that maybe I should shower and changed into my pajamas, so that's what I did, I left all my clothes in my bedroom and headed for a shower, washed and brushed my hair the whole routine. It helped in a way that it killed time but I still wasn't tried, it was going to be a long night. After finishing in the bathroom, I re-entered my bedroom through the connecting door and found my pajamas, I felt like I was going through the motions more than feeling them, but it was a start. What everyone had said to me earlier had really stuck in my head, I had the most amazing friends in the world, I still couldn't forgive myself for Reuben's death but it had inspired me to try even harder, just for them. I would never fully be over Reuben being gone, but I could continue and make him proud, so that's what I was going to do.  
I threw the towel that I'd been using to dry my hair onto my bed and it landed next to Lukas's jacket, I knew it caused me the blush a little. His idea about me keeping it so that I knew he'd be back tomorrow, well I still couldn't think of words to say about it but I knew it made me feel all fuzzy and weak inside. I picked it up slowly and put it on, the leather was cold against my arms at first but that soon faded. I sat down on my bed and realized that this was the first time I'd actually put it on instead of it being wrapped around me, I don't know why that was so important to me, but my mind made a note of it anyway. I flopped back on the bed, trying to decided what to do next. Food? I wasn't hungry but I should eat something, I could at least make a drink I thought. I stood with a huff and headed downstairs.

I was met by too much silence when I reached the bottom of my stairs, so I headed for my jukebox and played whatever was in it, not paying any mind to it, just needing it to make noise. My armour was still on the stand and Reuben's blanket was on the sofa where I'd left it this morning. I sat down next to it and gathered it up, I sat with it for a while until I remembered that I'd come down here to find sustenance.  
I decided on an apple and some warm milk, apples were my favourite and milk is supposed to make you feel sleepy, right? Whoever originally said that, they were telling you lies.  
I'd finished my food and drink and had been sat on the sofa for so long that the music had finished so long ago that I couldn't even remember what had played. The room was filled by silence again but still I didn't feel tired, so I decided to try actually going to bed.  
That plan didn't see much success either. I'd climbed into my bed with his jacket still on and the blanket wrapped around me, perhaps that was why, but I didn't want to be without them.  
I had a desk and big soft bucket chair in my bedroom, it was to the left as you came in, and next to it were a couple of bookcases with whatever I was currently reading and my all time favourites. I decided to curl myself up in the chair, again still wearing his jacket and Reuben's carrot blanket, and see what I could find to read to pass the time.

I was woken up by the sound of soft voices coming from downstairs and a stream of sunlight through a gap in my curtains. Unfolded myself from the chair I stretched and yawned, wondering when, and how, I'd fallen asleep, although I was glad that I'd finally topped up on some.  
Picking up Reuben's blanket and wrapping it back around myself, I headed downstairs to find out who the voices belonged to, yawning again as I did so.

* * *

Lukas POV

I guess I'd been bit to eager to see how Jesse was doing that morning as she didn't come to the trapdoors when I knocked. I gave them a try and they opened, just like last time. Maybe she'd unlocked them for me? I think I was getting a bit ahead of myself there.

I let myself in again, Jesse had said to make myself at home and I was worried that she was crying by herself again, but thankfully she wasn't. Her bedroom was the last place to check and I knocked before entering, no response. At first I was confused when I found the room empty, but she was there. Jesse had fallen asleep at her desk instead of her bed but I guess it was a start. A couple of books were on her desk and one on the floor, she was wearing my jacket and Reuben's blanket, which had mostly fallen from her in her sleep. The chair she was sleeping in was big enough for her to curl up on, her head resting on her arm resting on the chair.  
Sneaking over quietly, I covered her back up in her blanket, taking note of how adorable she was sleeping in my jacket, maybe my idea had helped a little after all. I didn't particularly have anything to so this morning so decided to wait downstairs for Jesse to wake up.

It wasn't long before someone else had the same idea as me to check on Jesse, there was a knock on the trapdoors and Olivia peaked her head through. "Oh, Lukas. Good morning." She didn't sound all that surprised to see me here.

"Good morning Olivia."

Olivia had a quick look about the room, "Where's Jesse?"

"She's asleep upstairs. I told her I'd come by today but I didn't want to wake her up." Would she question as to how I'd gotten in and why I was still here? That would be a long and slightly awkward story.

"Aw, I'm glad. I was coming by to make sure she was doing okay." A little relief went over me as she didn't question me.

"And me, I wanted to see her too!" I hadn't noticed the boy next to Olivia, her brother I guessed and he was a lot younger than Olivia was.

"Samuel, if Jesse's asleep what to do we?"

"We be quiet. Sorry 'Livvy." She gave her brother a pat on the head.

"Mind if we hang about? I've not got much planned today and I think I need a break from the old Order." She rubbed her eyes, clearly they hadn't changed any. I told her that I didn't, after all it wasn't even my house anyway and she sat in one of the chairs, while Samuel made a mess with things he'd found in a chest by the trapdoors.

* * *

Not quite an hour had gone by before we heard a door shut from upstairs and footsteps making their way down. Samuel had given up on removing things from their place to the floor and was sat with Olivia, asking her questions about things he'd found in books. That was until he heard the footsteps and spun around in their direction, "Sis is awake!" He ran from the chair and launched himself at Jess as she reached the bottom of the stairs and with such force that it knocked her back a step, she was wearing her pink pajamas and my jacket with Reuben's blanket around her shoulders.

"Samsam! What are you doing here? Actually... Is something going on in generally? It's too early for this." Jesse returned the hug and moved more into the room holding the boys hand.

"Careful Sammy, sis is a bear when she wakes up." Olivia said with a giggle.

"I am not a bear. Samsam, 'Liv is so mean to me you should come be my little brother instead." He seemed to like that idea. Olivia gave Jesse a look which just caused her to laugh and hug Samuel.

"Morning Jess." I greeted her, she was sat opposite me on one of the big sofas, the one she'd fallen asleep on the other night.

"Thank you, Lukas! And good morning to you too, it's nice to receive a normal greeting." She paused, "so, why are you all here so early?"

"I wanted to see if you were okay." Samuel told her.

"Aw, that's very kind of you. I'm doing okay I think." Jesse gave his hair a ruffle.

"Really? You're not just saying that for Samuel are you Jesse?" Olivia was thinking along the same lines as myself.

"Well, I didn't cry last night, although I know I didn't get much sleep either. My appetites not back yet either. But, what you guys said to me yesterday really helped a lot and I've been thinking since then that, although I'm never going to be over Reuben, I can at least keep trying to be better and make him proud, right?" Jess smiled at us, she really was telling the truth about how she felt and of course I was happy to hear that.

"Jesse, it's wonderful to hear you be more like yourself again." Olivia exclaimed agreeing with me.

"I owe you guys so much for not giving up on me. Thank you."

"You don't owe us anything Jess." I told her and Olivia nodded in agreement with me. "I.. Uh, have something I need to do now so I'll be heading out," I looked to Olivia who gave me a nod, knowing that I was heading into town to finish the monument for Reuben and Jesse. I stood from the sofa and Jesse came to give me a hug before I left, which I returned. "I'm glad that you're feeling better, but promise me that you won't hesitate to ask for help if that changes, okay?"

"heh, promise, and here." She took off my jacket and handed it back to me, earning a raised eyebrow from Olivia. "you kept your promise to, thank you, it really did help." She beamed a smile at me and I couldn't help but beam one back. I returned my jacket back on my person, bid Olivia and Samuel a good bye and left the treehouse, heading in the direction of the town center.

* * *

Town wasn't what I'd call busy but the people that were about of course came to ask the usual, "were you one of them who saved the world?", and thanked me for doing so. I couldn't begin to imagine what things would be like once they knew that we were going to be the new Order, speaking of which, Jesse hadn't said that she had accepted the offer this morning. There's a big difference in feeling better and taking so the responsibility of being the leader of the greatest heroes ever, or well, that was what the world thought at least.  
It was late again by the time I'd finished building the monument. I'd restarted the thing so many times and changed the materials, I'd never been so worried to build something in my whole life but it had to be perfect for Jesse. It wasn't loud and flashy but it was noticeable. Olivia's idea of including it with the beacons and our new temple was the perfect idea, the temple of which was about half built. Production was slow due to people needing houses which of course came first. Soren was in charge of building it and the beacons as a symbol to the hand over of the Order so you can imagine how flashy they were. Talk of the temple had already begun to float around and I'd been asked about it plenty of times, it seems that once you save the world and become a hero, you're expected to know everything, it was just unfortunate that I did know this time and had to lie about it. The beacons had also drawn attention although they were completely finished, a small platform had been built in front of them in preparation for tomorrow's handover of the Order, that was if Jesse had decided or not of course.

I was heading back to the Ocelots, no one was awake when I'd returned yesterday but it was very late so I hadn't expected anyone to be. Today however, I would have to tell them about the Order offering me a position, better it come from me personally than tomorrow during the ceremony.

"Dude, where even are you any more?" Aiden greeted me upon entering our place.

"Sorry, I lost track of time yesterday." He eyed me, clearing wanting to ask who I was losing track of time with, I decided to continue and sort of answer that for him, "where are Maya and Gill?"

"Gills in there napping," He pointed to our TV/games room to the left, "and Maya is... Somewhere. She was right here just a moment ago."

"Well go find her, I need to talk to you about something." Well it was more tell them about something. I knew that they weren't going to like the fact that I'd decided this without them, but it was one of those once-in-a-life-time opportunities. I went and woke up Gill with a kick to the sofa he was sleeping on, Aiden came downstairs with Maya and joined us.

"Sounds like overworld shattering news." Maya deadpanned.

"What news?" Gill yawned and sat up, Maya immediately sat down in the space he'd created. Aiden didn't take a seat and instead leaned against the back of the sofa.

"Lukas, has something he wants to talk to us about." There was hostility in Aiden's voice already, great. I ignored it otherwise I'd never get to the point.

"Well, it concerns my whereabouts the past couple of days," good start Lukas, lying already, you'd had one morning meeting about it. Aiden motioned his hand to me to hurry it up, like he had some important place to be.

"The Order of the Stone are well, passing down their title so to speak."

"Whoa, really? Who could take their place?" Maya awed at me.

"Ha, well..." I stopped myself before I said anything, telling these guys a big secret like the Order being a bunch of frauds was perhaps not the brightest idea, it wouldn't stay a secret. I cleared my throat to regather myself, "guess who they asked to be one of the new members?"

There was silence in the room for a moment, followed by blinks and open mouths. Aiden was the first to break the silence, "no way..." His voice wasn't loud for once and instead held disbelief. "You dude?" I nodded at him and the three of them jumped up to give me hugs and congratulations, I savoured it as I knew that wouldn't be so keen about the next piece of information.

"The ceremony is tomorrow on the condition that Jesse agrees to being leader."

"Wait, what?" I think all three of them spoke that in unison.

"The Order wanted Jesse to be the new leader, but she wasn't sure since her friend died. So the four of us decided that we'd only take the offer if she did too."

"Four? Who are the others they've chosen then? Don't tell me..." Aiden had probably already figured it out, I'm sure he'd heard the news about the five of us around town by now.

"Including me and Jess its; Axel, Olivia and Petra." There, it was out there, said and done. I wasn't exactly prepared for what came next. The three of them said a lot of words in disbelief and how they didn't understand why they were chosen, although they could understand Petra which I found amusing. She had been sick the whole journey and probably not done as much as they thought.

"So, you're ditching us basically. For fame and glory?" Aiden said with bitterness.

"It's not like that. I knew this is how you would react. Just because you're not members doesn't mean you can't help." I tried reasoning with them.

"Help them? No thanks." Maya spat, turning down a brilliant offer before it had even began.

"Well that's your choice then."

"What?" I guess Maya had assumed that I would take her side, I wasn't going to.

"They've done nothing wrong yet you seem to treat them as though they have. You should of seen how hard they, WE, fought to destroy the Wither storm. Eleegaard died and hell, Jess even lost her best friend."

"Well you've clearly taken up that spot so no need to worry, and we would of seen if you'd cared enough to look for us!" Aiden shouted at me.

"I told you I did look!" I shouted back.

"I don't believe you."

"Well there's a surprise." I tried to reason with him one more time. "It doesn't have to be like this, you're making it this way."

"It does have to be this way but you know what Lukas, fine, I don't care. Go to your little hero group, new friends and girlfriend. Clearly we're just not good enough any more."

"It's not like that at all, but fine, maybe I will."

"So you don't deny it?" Aiden asked, a little less rage in his voice.

"No, I don't." I'd said that before thinking about what I wasn't denying. The fact that I was joining a new group? Having new friends? A girlfriend? Thinking about it now, I guess they were all true, so no I didn't deny them. "I'm leaving."

"Fine."

"Fine." I slammed the door on my way out and didn't stop moving, heading directly for Jesse's treehouse.

* * *

I'd fought more with my 'friends' than I ever had with Jesse and her group, I was fooling myself by believing that they would be happy for me. I had to let it go, move on so to speak, I just wish it was on better terms. I'd stomped all the way to Jesse's house, it was peaceful as always and the air was crisp, I think I understood why Jesse, loving the night time as much as she did, chose to live here now.

I knocked on the trapdoors and Jesse answered within a second, she must of been about to go somewhere as she was fully dressed. "Hey Lukas, good even... !" I instantly drew her into a tight hug the second I'd entered her house. Jesse stood for a beat in confusion before returning the hug and catching onto my mood. "What's wrong?" Her voice was calm and quite. I didn't reply, still to angry to form sentences that would make sense and instead buried my face in her neck. Jesse didn't question me again, I think she could tell that I was angry and knew not to force an answer out of me. I moved so that our foreheads were together and my hands on the sides of her face.

"I'm sorry." I whispered to her.

"Don't be." She whispered back, catching on to what I was getting at and moved in slowly to kiss me.

It was exactly what I needed. I knew that I was looking for emotional support and that I was going about it in the wrong way, but everything about Jesse made me feel better and I wasn't about to stop what was happening.  
I felt Jesse's hands grip at me as I pushed against her, she opened her mouth and I didn't hesitate in claiming it. I stepped forward causing Jesse to lean back, if she hadn't been holding onto me she would of fallen. One of her hands came to my neck as I broke away from her.

"You don't gotta be sorry for that." She joked, her voice breathy.

I smiled at her and drew her in for another hug, stroking her hair. "I don't know how, but you always make me feel better."

"Well I'm glad that I have that effect on you."

I took a deep breath, "would you mind, coming with me for a moment? There's something I want to show you in town."

"Sure?" She gave me a puzzled look before following me down the ladder. I watched her lock her house this time and start following me, neither of us spoke until we reached the monument.

* * *

Jesse POV

I had been pottering about the house not being able to sleep again when I decided to try going for a night walk, I'd been about to leave when there was a knock on the trapdoors, I answered to find it was Lukas. I hadn't even finished greeting him as he pulled me into a strong hug and buried himself into my neck. I questioned as to what was wrong but he didn't response. Something was clearly upsetting him and of course I wanted to know so I could help him, but he'd speak when he was ready, I'd give him time just like he'd given me.  
It wasn't long before he brought out heads together, his hands were on my cheeks, they were cold due to the cold night air which sent a shiver down my spine, but also for another reason.

I'd slept on two occasions since Reuben died; the first was the night Lukas had visited me after Olivia went home, and the second was in his jacket. He was also the person I was most happy to see when I awoke that morning.  
I gave my feeling more thought though. Sure, something was there, the world wasn't ending and we weren't simply drawn to each other because of support, but it also crossed my mind that I was using him to fill the empty place in me. But then Lukas wasn't feeling what I was, he hadn't been through what I had to make me doubt my own feeling. Then again, something had obviously happened with him and he'd come straight here by the looks of things, that had to count for something, right? Whatever I was feeling, I knew I had to give it some more thought, decided if these were separate feelings or not.

Lukas apologized to me and I knew that it wasn't for the sudden hug. I told him not to be as I found myself a bit giddy to know that a kiss was coming. So I gave him one and I think that my heart missed a few beats as Lukas stole them from me. He asked permission for more, but not with words, and I granted it to him, then he took a step forward, causing me to lean back, one arm was supporting me by my waist while my own hands held tightly to his back. I felt like I was being absorbed and there was nothing I could, or wanted to do to stop it.  
He was the one who broke the kiss and I told him that he had nothing to be sorry for if that was the case.  
Another hug followed by a question, Lukas wanted to show me something in town. Of course I agreed and followed him out of my treehouse. He didn't say anything else and I didn't pester him too.

With how fast Lukas was walking, we reached what I assumed he wanted to show me in no time. Again, no words were said, instead he looked from me to a building.

It was a cross shaped mausoleum made from; Polished Diorite, Polish Andesite and Quartz, standing on a platform made from the same materials and flowers had been planted around it. The sides were open which allowed you to see a Quartz central column with ledges around the bottom.  
A tiered canopy ran around the top and formed a roof which the Quartz column burst through and held it's own smaller canopy where a fire burned, it had to be burning due to Netherrack which meant that it would burn forever.  
But what grabbed my attention the most was the face on he banners and the name on the plaques that were on all sides; Reuben.  
I stepped up the platform and placed my hand on the cold Andesite, a tear forming instead of words.

"I built it for Reuben and for you." Lukas said behind me, so quietly I could barely hear him. "I was thinking that we could unveil it at tomorrow's ceremony."

I didn't turn around to look at him, instead I placed my head against the cold pillar and cried, but they didn't feel like sad tears. Before I knew it I was being hugged from behind and I spun around to hug Lukas back. It was very late, I'd only seen one other person on the way here but it didn't matter, I cried into his shoulder for a long time while he said nothing and just stroked my hair, he'd picked up on the calming effect it had on me before I even had.  
After I'd calmed down some, I shifted in his arms to face him, "Lukas, did you really... For me?"

He smiled and moved his hand from my hair to my face, "Of course. I had the idea and asked Olivia her thoughts, she agreed and left the building up to me."

"It's lovely, wonderful, perfect." I moved one of my hands to touch the Andesite again, "it's like, something physical to remember him by. Like he's still here."

"That's exactly what I was thinking."

"Thank you Lukas, this is... I don't think words have been invented yet." It was hard not to cry again after receiving such a wonderful gift.

"Your welcome, Jess. I wanted to do anything I could to help you smile again." I blushed hard but thankfully I was looking at the mausoleum, "there is something else, two somethings actually. I don't think there's an easy way to go about this so I'm just gonna go for it."

I turned to face him, "What is it Lukas?"

He reached into his inventory and pulled out two items; my enchanted diamond sword and Reuben's drop, a single pork chop, the last thing he'd given me. No, that wasn't true. I smiled and took them from Lukas, who was thoroughly confused, "Thank you for holding onto these for me."

"You're not upset." It wasn't a question but more of a statement.

I shook my head, "no, not anymore. Reuben is gone, no matter who's fault it is that won't change. He gave his life to give me this sword to save the world and I thought this pork chop was the last thing he gave me, but it isn't." Lukas responded with another confused face and I gave a small laugh, "Hope. That tomorrow will be better because we're strong enough to make it happen. He never stopped having faith in me, so now I'll need to do that for him to not let him down." I pocketed the sword and 'Reuben' before taking a deep breath, "so tomorrow, if you'll still have me, I'd like to accept the offer from the Order. I'm ready for the tomorrow Reuben has given me."

Lukas blinked at me a few times, "Jess, that's..." I laughed and threw my arms around him, he caught me and didn't finish his sentence.

"Really Lukas, this is perfect. Just what I needed and it's in a great location, for everyone to see. Thank you so much!"

"I, uh, well I wasn't expecting... I mean I'm glad it did though, that was that I was hoping for after all. What I mean is, your welcome Jess."

I'd stopped attacking Lukas with hugs and we were looking at each other. I felt like he wanted to say something, was it okay to ask? I decided too, "are you okay Lukas?"

"I, well," I could see him having an internal struggle with whatever it was, he took a big sigh before speaking, "I was wondering if I could stay at yours tonight?" It was obvious that I'd blushed and that he realized what he'd said as he tried to correct himself, "Ah no, I didn't mean... It's just I kinda fell out with the Ocelots and I feel more comfortable at yours, I mean..." I laughed at him struggling with his words, it was sweet to watch. I put my hand to his mouth to end his struggle.

"Of course, you don't even need to ask. I said you're welcome anytime and I meant it." I took up his hand in my own and started the walk back to my treehouse.

* * *

We arrived back and I told Lukas to make himself at home, to use the armour stand if he wanted, he did, his next to mine. I placed my sword and Reuben's pork chop in the chest next to the armours, I was okay with them but it still felt odd to carry them, at least for now.  
I asked Lukas if he wanted anything from the kitchen as I headed there, he didn't say anything but followed me.  
I spotted Axel's not so secret cookies that he 'hid' in my kitchen, emergency cookies, and decided that they'd do nicely. They were on a high shelve that was just out of my reach, as I was trying to nudge them forward with my fingers, Lukas came up behind me and collected the jar and handed it to me, I thanked him, my voice weak from his closeness. In hopes he wouldn't notice I tried again, "I was thinking cookies and milk, these are really good ones."

"Sure." He agreed, but his mind sounded like it was elsewhere.

I placed the jar on the table in the main room as Lukas took off his jacket and sat down on the closet sofa to the trapdoors. After fetching our drinks I joined him.

Nothing was said, Lukas was leaning back against the sofa with his arms across the back, staring at the beams in the ceiling.  
To me, the air seemed to hold an awkwardness, he'd told me that he'd fallen out with his friends and it must of been serious if he didn't even want to sleep in the same building. Well, if he was staying then I'd stay down here with him, I told him I was just going to grab something from upstairs and returned with a bunch of blankets and pillows, dumping them down next to him I received a confused look as to why so many, so I threw them over him. He laughed as he found his way out and I sat myself back down next to him, angling myself so that I was facing him and leaning against the sofa too, I suddenly became aware that I was also leaning against Lukas's arm, but didn't want to move and interrupt the mood. Lukas noticed as well and moved his hand to what was becoming normal; playing with my hair.

I watched his eyes watching mine and for a moment it was perfect. The light was dim, we had cookies, blankets and pillows scattered about us and each other, but I had to break it. Lukas was upset earlier, if not still and I wanted to help. "Do you want to talk about it?"

The hand in my hair briefly stopped and he averted his eyes. "I'm sorry Jesse, for coming here and well, you know. I was angry and upset, I know that's no excuse but I hope you can understand my actions."

"Lukas," I interrupted and he looked back to me, "you don't have to be sorry. If I didn't like it or want it I would of done something." I knew he was referring to the sudden kiss, but he really had nothing to apologize for, hell, I wouldn't pass up another that was for sure, the thought caused me to blush, I moved on quickly. "I just want to know the cause so I can help, unless you don't want to say. I'll understand either way."

He moved, sitting normally with his elbows on his legs and resting his head in his hands. "They weren't happy," he paused, perhaps waiting for a reply, but I didn't want to interrupt. After a moment he carried on, "I mean I shouldn't be too surprised and they were at first but well," he sighed and ran his fingers through his hair before looking at me, "he wasn't always like this, Aiden I mean. We've been friends for years, I never saw the change in him until recently, anyway tangent." He sighed again and leaned back on the sofa, shutting his eyes, "I thought I'd let them know before I became a member of the Order tomorrow, and they were happy for me until they found out that they weren't the other members, you can guess the rest."

I could indeed, Lukas had left and come straight here I guessed, to me. I blushed and fidgeted, he'd built such a lovely memorial for Reuben just to help and make me happy, what could I do for him? I couldn't really insult his friends, although I'm sure choice words had been said already, and I don't think the lines like 'they'll get over it', were going to be any good either. So I went for a question instead in hopes it would sort out his mind, "Do you regret taking the offer?"

"No," he said after a seconds thought, "I don't, even now." His voice held a sort of realization and his eyes opened to stare at nothing.

I scooted over and he watched as I snuggled myself into his side, one of my arms across him to his shoulder, "then we'll just have to win them over."

"Jess, you..."

"I what?" I asked looking up at him.

Lukas watched me, like he was looking for an answer to some great question, "nothing, nothing what so ever." He gave a soft laugh against my head and then kissed it before resting his against mine. The hand that liked playing with my hair returned and we were silent for a while, surrounded by way too many blankets and pillows in a dimly lit room.

A long time passed and I wondered if Lukas had fallen asleep when a question popped into my head, I asked it to no one, "Do you think we'll have to give a speech tomorrow?"

"Heh, you probably will." Nope, he wasn't asleep.

"Fantastic." I said flatly, causing him to laugh.

The night was spent: firstly by me worrying about the speech, to which Lukas said to keep it brief and not worry over it, don't say much if I didn't want to. Next was Lukas asking why I lived here, for the silence and stars was my answer, he agreed. We ate cookies, neither of us feeling guilty for them being Axel's, I'd bake him more at some point.  
I don't remember who yawned first, but I do remember gathering myself up in blankets and taking some pillows to the other sofa.  
We talked more, in low voices and whispers, about pointless things. How Axel nearly blew my treehouse up with TNT and how Olivia liked to torment it with crazy redstone ideas. I wanted to ask about his friends, how they met and used to be, who they were, but thought better of it and instead asked how long he'd known Petra for and that I bet he could get his own Nether Star now. We laughed and told terrible jokes, then we talked about the future and the vastness of it, we both agreed to no more Wither storms.  
No goodnights were said, sleep slowly crept up on us due to the comfort of each other and nothing more.

* * *

Morning came and with it the next step in our lives; becoming the new Order. Lukas was still asleep so I decided to head for a shower. I redressed and then headed back down to start putting my armour on, I was being as quiet as I could but I guess that Lukas must of been a light sleeper as he awoke before I finished.  
I apologized for waking him and offered him the use of the shower, which he took and I made breakfast for us when he'd finished.

"I was thinking last night after you'd fallen asleep," he said around breakfast, "after the ceremony, that I might head out on my own for a while. Help rebuild the outer places and just get away from everything." I knew that he meant the Ocelots.

"If that's what you need to do then go for it." If Lukas needed to sort out his mind some more on what was happening and if that's how he needed to do it then I wasn't going to stop him. "I'm guessing that the Order... I mean that we won't have a plan as what we're going to be doing. What do groups of heroes do when there's no monsters to fight and people to save?" We pondered it for awhile, not really coming up with much other than maybe searching temples and adventuring.

After breakfast, I roughly tidied up the room while Lukas put his armour on. It had been the first time in a few days since I'd worn mine, I wouldn't say that it felt completely right but this was day one for me, I'm sure that it would in time. "When are you planning on leaving?" I asked, my back to Lukas as I was folding a blanket.

"Right after the ceremony I think, it'll be easier then."

"That's a shame." I put a hand to my mouth a little too late, I hadn't meant that the way it sounded. My voice was sad, like I was hoping that he wasn't leaving right away. I robotically took my hand away and continued folding the blanket like I hadn't said that.

"I'm sorry Jess," Lukas had placed himself right next to me, I pretended to be busy, "I just think it's going to be easier to leave before everyone wants to celebrate and of course, I bump into my friends."

"No, no, I understand. It makes sense."

Lukas, being the intelligent person that he was, had caught onto how I was feeling. He placed a hand on my shoulder and turned me to look at him, I averted my eyes to the floor and kept them there even when he lifted my face with his other hand. He called my name and asked if I'd miss him, I couldn't answer that and instead bit my lip to stop my voice betraying me again. The hand on my shoulder moved to the other side of my face and he said my name again in question, it was low and grabbed my attention enough for me to finally look at him, just in time for him to kiss me.  
It wasn't full of need like our previous one, it was slow and held thought. I was going to miss him and I knew, through this kiss, that he was feeling the same way, this wasn't an easy choice for him but he had to do it. We took a breath and shared another, my hands came up to hold onto his arm and shoulder. When the second ended, Lukas brought me in close to him and I rested my head on his shoulder. A peaceful, yet sad silence fell about the room, but it didn't last as before long there was a knock on the trapdoors. I gave Lukas a sad smile and left the comfort of his arms to answer the door.

"Good morning Jesse!" Olivia greeted, coming into the room fully. Axel and Petra followed up after her.

"Um, morning?" I greeted everyone. To which they greeted me back and then Lukas.

"We came to get you." Axel explained.

"And I'm guessing you've made your mind up." Petra added, gesturing to me in my armour.

"I have indeed. If you're still willing to have me that is."

"Of course! We were waiting for you." Axel told me and I gave him a confused face and asked what he meant.

"We weren't going to do this without you, Jess." Lukas explained to me.

"Wait, what? Really?" So unless I took the offer as well my friends weren't going to accept theirs either? Of course I'd want them to take the best opportunity for them but I was also ridiculously happy that they'd done such a thing. "Well, no pressure or anything." I laughed, "but really, that means so much, thank you."  
The next few minutes were filled with hugs and them telling me that they wouldn't feel right without me. We left my treehouse and headed for the center of town together.

* * *

Town was as busy as you can imagine for such a massive ceremony, people from all the surrounding areas including Boom Town and Redstonia were also here to witness this once in a life time event. As the crowds parted and made way for us to walk through I stopped to look at Reuben's memorial for support before continuing.  
We were headed for a temporary platform that had been set up in front on the beacons, the current Order members: Gabriel, Magnus, Soren and Ivor were there waiting for us already, and I liked to think that Ellegaard was there in spirit as well.  
The beacons stood between Reuben's memorial and our new, but not yet completed temple across a small lake and bridge, they were a testament to our achievement of defeating the Wither storm, a monument that would stand through the generations to remind people of this day, why it had happened and of us, the Order of the Stone.  
The base of the beacon monument was made out of Quartz and rose in levels, three of them and the shape was of the Order's amulet; a black ring with four gold sections at north, east, south and west. Between those gold parts the black triangled in to hold a smaller gold ring which encased a purple crystal. From each outer gold section coloured crystals joined the centeral gold ring, white was at north, red at east, blue at south and green at west.  
So the giant beacon one had been made from Obsidian for the black parts and gold blocks for the gold, with the Quartz bulking it out. Purpur blocks represented the purple, Iron blocks the white, Redstone blocks the red, Diamond blocks for blue and Emerald blocks for green. Beacons were set at intervals in the 'crystal' parts of the monument, with matching coloured stain glass on top of them. All the beacons were off at the moment, waiting to be activated after the hand over.

Just before I joined my friends on the platform however, Gabriel nudged my arm and whispered to me, "perhaps they deserve to know the truth about the Order?"

"You're right, they do deserve to know." He gave me a sad expression as we moved to join everyone else on the platform. I knew the people would be upset to learn the truth but it was better than believing in a lie and the way I saw it was that they had us now, we had taken down the Wither storm, no lies, no Command Blocks, plus we didn't want Ivor creating another just to show the world the truth, this was for the better.

Gabriel took to the center while the other members stood to his left, I joined my friends on the other side. His voice was loud as he addressed the crowd, it held a lot more confidence than I'm sure he was feeling. "We all owe a great debt to Jesse and her friends, but I owe a debt to you people as well. Which is why... There is something I want to tell you. About the Order." Gabriel paused to look at me, maybe for support, maybe to ask if he really had to do this, I nodded to him. It was going to tarnish their name sure, but it was one they never had in the first place. "The Order of the Stone... Is not what you all believed, we were frauds. We used the Command Block to falsify our legacy." Next he turned to Ivor, who looked at him with a forgiving smile and nodded, mending a friendship was worth more than keeping a façade. The crowd, as you can imagine, were shocked and appalled by this news just as we had been. People shook heads, hands went to mouths and words were being mumbled. My respect did go to Gabriel however, for finally coming clean and for continuing on, "We were no heroes... So it is time for the world to celebrate new heroes, real heroes!"

I walked to Gabriel's side and told him that I'd take it from here, the crowd cheered and suddenly I realized that all eyes were on me. I was more nervous than I had been when I was taking down the Wither storm. I started to calm the crowd down as all the words I was going to say left me, "Thank you, thank you everyone." Come on brain, I was going to have to make it up on the spot. In front of me was Reuben's memorial and it restored some level of confidence in me. "I know you think I'm up here because I saved the world or something, but the truth is I didn't do it alone, far from it. You see I had my friends with me," I turned to face them and named them off in order, "Petra, Lukas, Olivia and Axel. They stood by my side and believed in me the whole time, it's crazy to think that we started out in a treehouse and now we've been to some of the weirdest places in the overworld. We even went to the Far Lands, there was this gigantic wall and a huge maze, and this model of the Ender dragon that well, you just had to be there. But when all was said and done, do you know what really mattered? Saving the world and that wouldn't of been possible without my hero, Reuben." I pointed to his memorial, "he may of seemed just like an ordinary pig to most people, but he was so much more. I could have never of done this without him. He gave me advice, picked me up when I was down and in the end... He saved every one of us. I'll really miss the little guy."

"We all will." Correct Petra as Olivia came to my side, I smiled at her.

Magnus came across and handed me a purple Nether star. It glowed in the middle and had four points just like a regular star, but it's colour was light purple to dark. Nether stars drop from defeated Wither's, I'm guessing that this one was a different kind and hopefully the only one I'll ever encounter. "This is the Nether star that dropped when the Wither storm was destroyed." The next part he said to me and not the crowd and pointed to the beacons behind us, "you wanna do the honors?"

I took the star from him and stepped my way to the middle of the beacons. I took a moment for myself before placing the star in the very middle. It started to spin slowly, before rising slightly and activating the beacons. Beams of light shot into the sky which were now our colours; I was purple, taking Ivor place and Soren's leadership. Soren's place itself was taken by Lukas, the architect, the builder of worlds, with the colour white. Gabriel's was passed to Petra, the warrior with blue. Magnus handed his to Axel, the rogue with green. He might not have been completely fitting of that name, but he was rogue enough for us. Finally, Ellegaard's place was taken by Olivia, the redstone engineer with red. Out of all of us, Olivia had actually been chosen to follow in Ellegaards footsteps long before, as her assistant, I'm sure that Ellegaard would approve of this.  
Everyone cheered as the beacons were activated and it was amazing to see, they would be shining for as long as the Nether star was there.

"My friends," Gabriel had started to talk and I joined him on the stage again, he held the amulet. "I am now pleased to introduce to you, The new Order the of Stone." He handed the amulet to me as he spoke and the crowd cheered so loud I thought my ears might never work again. My team, my friends gathered around me, center stage for the crowd. We all looked equally awkward, they were lucky that they hadn't had to say a speech. We waved and cheered back, fists were pumped in the air and I held up the amulet for all to see. I would continue on protecting; people, my friends, the world and the tomorrow that Reuben had given me, had given all of us.


End file.
